Another addition to the collection of turf and bog navigations: the Monivea navigations, developed by Robert French in the middle of the eighteenth century. The navigations, like certain others in the nineteenth century, combined drainage, navigation and water power.
Monivea is near Athenry in Co Galway.
Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Sources, The cattle trade, The grain trade, The turf trade, waterways
Tagged Arthur Young, canals, Galway, Monivea, navigable lines, Robert French
Measure the length and breadth of the stack; then take its height from the ground to the eaves, and add to this last one-third of the height from the eaves to the top. Multiply the length by the breadth, and the product by the height, all expressed in feet; divide the amount by 27, to find the cubic yards, which multiply by the number of stones supposed to be in a cubic yard (viz in a stack of new hay, six stones; if the stack has stood a considerable time, eight stones; and if old hay, nine stones), and you have the weight in stones.
For example, suppose a stack to be 60 feet in length, 30 in breadth, 12 in height from the ground to the eaves, and 9 (the third of which is 3) from the eaves to the top; then 60 X 30 X 15 = 27000; 27000 ÷ 27 = 1000; and 1000 X 9 = 9000 stones of old hay.
Samuel Salt Statistics and Calculations essentially necessary to Persons connected with Railways or Canals; containing a variety of information not to be found elsewhere 2nd ed Effingham Wilson, London 1846
You too can possess a copy of this invaluable book, which has much useful information about railways and canals
In England the trans-Pennine waterways are being closed (for through navigation) because of a shortage of water. The worst affected is the Leeds and Liverpool but the Huddersfield Narrow and the Rochdale will also be closed to through navigation. There are also restrictions on the Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals.
Posted in Canals, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts
The assistance given to canals belonging to companies in Ireland in the last and commencement of the present century was chiefly in the form of loans of public money or by grants from special or general taxes; but we have been unable to obtain from the records of inland navigation in Ireland a complete account of the public loans which were made for such purpose.
Report of the Commissioners appointed to inspect the accounts and examine the works of Railways in Ireland, made to the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury HMSO, London 1868
How true those words are even today.
I would be grateful if anyone could tell me the full cost of the restoration of the Royal Canal and the Ballinamore & Ballyconnell Canal, now the Shannon–Erne Waterway.
Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Modern matters, Restoration and rebuilding, Waterways management
Tagged Ballinamore and Ballyconnell Canal, canals, cost, inland navigations, Royal Canal, Shannon–Erne Waterway, waterways
General Post-office, Dublin, 17 March 1838
Sir
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th instant, desiring some information as to the modes of sending letters otherwise than by post.
Every species of contrivance that ingenuity can devise is resorted to for the purpose of evading the payment of postage; and though I cannot state decidedly the extent to which it is carried, but judging from the cases wherein the practice has been detected, I can have no hesitation in believing that it exceeds any idea persons in general may have formed of it.
Every coachman, carman, boatman, or other person whose business leads him to travel regularly between fixed places, is a carrier of letters; of this we have daily proof from the number of letters put into this office to be delivered by the penny-post, which have evidently been brought to Dublin by private hands, and which the officers of the sorting-office have estimated at about 400 per day.
Previous to the consolidation of the Post-office laws in August last, an Act, 53 Geo 3 c58, was in force in Ireland, which empowered the Postmaster-general to issue a warrant, upon sworn information, to search for letters illegally conveyed; and in May last a warrant of that description was issued against Patrick Gill, a carrier who travelled regularly between Granard and Dublin, and on his person were found 57 letters directed to persons in Dublin, which he had collected on the road; this Act was however repealed, and the clause which gave that power to the Postmaster-general was omitted in the Consolidation Acts: the Post-office has not now, therefore, that means of checking the illegal conveyance of letters. The fly-boats on the Royal and the Grand Canals, I am informed, carry great number of letters; the former extends to a distance of 90 miles from Dublin, and the latter to 94 miles, and through the entire distance of each of these lines letters are constantly collected for conveyance to Dublin.
The illegal transmission of letters to and from Great Britain has very much increased since the introduction of steam navigation: with the exception of Sunday, private steam-vessels pass daily between Dublin and Liverpool, and in the offices of the agents of such vessels a tin box is kept for the reception, they say, of consignees’ letters; but it is well known that vast numbers of letters of all descriptions are put into them, and the commanders not being compelled by the Custom-house to make the declaration required from masters of vessels from foreign ports, that all have been delivered at the Post-office, do not hesitate to convey them; but I have not any means of giving you a correct idea of the number of letters thus illegally conveyed.
The evasion of postage by means of newspapers, which is similarly injurious to the revenue with the illegal conveyance of letters, is also carried on to a great extent; it is the duty of the Post-office to examine newspapers to see that they are duly stamped and do not contain any writing or enclosure, and it is the practice to do so, as far as the vast number of them and the shortness of time will admit, without delaying the dispatch of the mails. I enclose an account showing the amount of postage charged in Dublin during each month from the 6th July 1836 to 5th January 1838 on newspapers containing writing or enclosures, amounting to a total of £2828 15s; and in the country offices the amount charged on newspapers in the year 1836, was £2122 9s 11d, and in 1837 it amounted to £3196 16s 11d. The practice is therefore increasing, and this I am inclined to believe scarcely amounts to one quarter of the postage on what are liable to charge, if it were possible that all newspapers could undergo a proper examination. I fear the practice is not absolutely confined to second-hand newspapers, but that the accounts of many news-agents are transmitted to subscribers in the same way; their papers are, however, so numerous, and are put into the office so short a time before the despatch of the mails, it is quite impossible to examine them.
Another mode of evading the payment of postage, or rather the writing of letters, is resorted to by factors, who publish printed circulars showing the state of the markets as respects their own particular trade; such circulars they get stamped as newspapers, which entitles them to free transmission by post, and their correspondents are distinguished therein by numbers. I have one now before me with the following communications in one of its columns: “No 17, You have a remittance this post.” “No 20, 84 sacks at 18s are sold.” “No 27, Yours not yet received.” “No 50, Nothing as yet done in yours.” These are taken from Mooney’s Corn and Flour Circular, which is published once a week, and 15s a year is the charge for it.
No instance of the illegal conveyance of letters to or from the villages in the neighbourhood of Dublin has ever come to my knowledge; many may be carried by occasional passengers, but I have not had any reason to suppose that an illegal collection of letters is made at any of the villages.
The enclosed piece of paper, which shows the pains and trouble taken to evade the payment of postage, was put into my hand this morning by the president of the sorting-office; it was found in the letter-box, and seems to be part of an old letter with a memorandum directing the person it was intended for, to inquire at two very respectable and well-known houses in Dublin, if they could send some letters to Tralee.
I have communicated to the solicitor (Mr Thompson) the postscript to your letter; he will search his books and papers and extract any useful information he possesses on the subject; he is summoned as a witness before the Kinsale Election Committee, and is to be in London on the 27th instant; perhaps, therefore, you may prefer examining him before the Committee on Postage, to any statement he may be able to make in writing.
I have &c
Aug[ustus] Godby
From Appendix 9 to First Report from the Select Committee on Postage; together with the minutes of evidence, and appendix Ordered to be Printed 10th May 1838 [149]
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Roads, Sea, Uncategorized
Tagged Augustus Godby, boatmen, canals, coachmen, Dublin, Granard, Grand Canal, Irish Sea, Liverpool, Post Office, Royal Canal, steam navigation, steamer, Tralee
According to Mr Monks‘s plan for the intended northern line of navigation, great accommodation and advantages would be afforded to the inhabitants of that part of the kingdom that lies north of the city of Dublin, particularly to those of the province of Ulster, who are so numerous — for all the sea ports, all the considerable towns and villages would have a cheap and secure interchangeable communication with each other, and the metropolis, in peace or war, safe from enemies and storms, most desirable objects to that extensive manufacturing country.
The design is to run a canal from Dublin to Blackwater-town (about 68 miles); the river Blackwater is navigable from thence to Lough Neagh — and with very little expence afterwards the following great general navigable canal communication would be opened:
And we understand (in order that the inland towns and villages should reap every advantage by this general plan) he proposes that canals of very small dimensions (which are made at very little expence) should be extended from the great lines to them for boats of only four tuns burden, where water cannot be obtained to answer canals of a larger scale; and wastage of locks, in place of which he would substitute machinery on a plain simple construction, to raise and lower them on inclined planes at the rate of 100 feet in four minutes, and which would also answer instead of aqueducts and embanking across wide valleys, one horse would be sufficient to draw, and one man to attend ten of these boats chained together, the whole carrying forty tons with great ease.
Thus not only the wealthy merchant and manufacturer, but the most inferior tradesman would have an opportunity of attending and disposing of his goods at the best market (let the quantity be ever so small) on equal terms, which would be a great means to defeat and put down forestalling — a most destructive species of dealing in a manufacturing country,
Dublin Evening Post 19 January 1797
More than 25,000 barges were being used on Britain’s inland waterways in the middle decades of the nineteenth century.
Philip S Bagwell The Transport Revolution from 1770 B T Batsford Ltd, London 1974
I wonder what the figure for Ireland was. My guess is that, including small turf boats and cots, it was probably less than one tenth of the British figure.
Posted in Canals, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Historical matters, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Shannon, The cattle trade, The grain trade, The turf trade, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged barges, Britain, canal boats, canals, cots, inland waterways, Ireland, numbers, traffic, turf boats
Andy Wood’s Abandoned & Vanished Canals of Ireland, Scotland and Wales [Amberley Publishing, Stroud 2015] is now available. It is a companion to his Abandoned & Vanished Canals of England.
Many (but by no means all) of the Irish canals are covered on this site; the author sought and was granted permission to draw on this material and has generously acknowledged that.
I have not yet had time to read the book but I did note that the author seems to have confused Grand Canal Harbour and Grand Canal Docks.
A number of questions have been repeatedly posed since the initial communications about the Canal Bye-law Enforcement. These are listed below in the following categories. Click on the category to access the questions and answers.
Five downloadable PDFs on
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Barrow, Barrow Line, boats, bridge, bye-laws, canal, canals, Dublin, enforcement, extended mooring locations, Grand Canal, Inspector of Navigation, Ireland, Operations, Royal Canal, Shannon, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Irish waterways history