History of the Thames & Severn Canal

In his seminal work of 1911 The Flower of Gloster, the author E. Temple Thurston described the "twenty-eight miles and a few odd furlongs" (a furlong being 1/8th mile) of the Thames and Severn Canal between Stroud and Inglesham as being "worth a thousand for the wealth of their colour alone".

Currently derelict but under active reclamation, the Thames & Severn Canal is one of two waterways - the other being the Stroudwater Navigation - which are described collectively as the Cotswold Canals. When restored, this will reinstate the direct west-east link between the River Severn (via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal at Saul Junction) and the River Thames. For many years the Cotswold Canals Trust has held the ambition of seeing full restoration and the more recent formal partnerships between various agencies including British Waterways have helped transform the dream into a viable intent.

The Stoudwater Navigation meandered 8 miles from the River Severn at Framilode to Wallbridge near Stroud. Although mooted as early as the 1720s it took more than half a century for the line to reach fruition in 1779 but it went on to become highly profitable.

In 1789 the opening of the Thames and Severn linked the Stroudwater Navigation with the Thames at Inglesham thereby creating a through route to London. Construction was no mean feat and the broad-gauge tunnel at Sapperton still rates amongst the longest in the country. Trade was brisk and there was also a passenger service but persistent problems with leakage in the porous Cotswold substrate, poor water supply and the arrival of the railways increasingly damaged its profitability and by the advent of World War II it had already been completely abandoned for several years.

In the 19th century the Stroudwater Navigation was bisected by the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal thereby creating Saul Junction. The short section between Saul Junction on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and the River Severn was closed in the 1950s. It is still easily traced but is unlikely to be restored and so eventual access to the river Severn from the Cotswold Canals will either be via Sharpness or, more likely for inland navigators, Gloucester.