Canal Company Map Books

In 1914 the Borough of Swindon petitioned Parliament to  close the Wilts & Berks Canal and the Act of Abandonment passed into law.

Local law firm Crowdys  were given the job of disposal  of the remaining assets of the Canal Company by selling the canal   either commercially or as prescribed in the Act of Parliament.

Now kept  in the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre  and reproduced here with their permission, the Map Books of the North Wilts Canal  and the mainline of the Wilts & Berks Canal are one of the few remaining records of the construction of the canal.

The pages of the book have been coloured and annotated with details of the sale of the canal.

Perhaps more interesting are the maps themselves  showing the canals as built and opened in 1819 and 1810 respectively.

 

Heritage and History

Much of the information about the Wilts & Berks Canal has been lost since the company was dissolved in the years following the 1914 Act of Abandonment.

The Partners are aiming to make as much information as possible viewable from these pages.

Swindon Borough Council's Library team has created a local history section called the Swindon Collection. The Swindon Flickr™ Wilts & Berks Canal images display some of the working life of the waterway.

The Swindon and Wiltshire History Centre hold some of the original Wilts & Berks Canal Company record books and maps and have given permission for some of the information to be used on these pages. Please follow the WB Company Maps located on the adjacent menu. 

Further research at the History Centre has revealed  an archived copy of information from Wiltshire County Council  regarding the modification of the canal highway bridges following closure of the canal . This document currently  is the only known record of the original design of these bridges. You can view the document here

There is continuing work to add the remaining structures of the canal to the Heritage Environment Record databases in Wiltshire/Swindon & Oxfordshire

Historic maps of the canal line are viewable on the National Library of Scotland web pages. Selecting the 1888-1913 maps will show the historic route of canal . Click here for the NLS map pages.

 

Wilts & Berks Canal Map

The map shown here gives details of the historic route and the proposed restoration route of the Wilts & Berks Canal.

The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is currently in the process of contacting all the landowners on the restoration route of the canal in order to start a dialogue about land acquisition and the design of the restoration route . If this route affects land in your ownership and you have not yet been contacted please email us so we can talk directly with you:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.