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Local Waterways History
Stratford upon Avon may be better known for William Shakespeare than its waterways and transport links although through the years the latter could be said to be of more importance.
Stratford in former times was a transport centre placed both on the River Avon Navigation, which gave access to Tewkesbury and the River Severn, at the end of the Stratford upon Avon Canal from Birmingham and the Black Country, and also at the end of the tramway to Moreton in the Marsh and Shipston on Stour.
The Stratford Upon Avon Canal
The Stratford upon Avon Canal was authorised by an initial Act of Parliament in 1793, and additional Acts in 1795 and 1799.
Cutting began in November 1793 at Kings Norton on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. The work progressed in various stages until the completed canal was opened at its junction with the River Avon at Stratford on 24th June 1816.
As completed the canal was twenty five and a half miles long and had cost £297,000
to build. The major constructions on the canal include 56 locks, a 352 yard 16 feet
wide tunnel, a large single span brick aqueduct and three cast iron trough aqueducts,
three high embankments and a reservoir at Earlswood.
Trade on the canal steadily increased to a peak in 1838; but with the coming of the railways was gradually taken from the canal. The canal company sold out to the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Co in 1856. Ownership passed to the Great Western Railway in 1865 and to the State on Nationalisation in 1948.
Decline increased with each change of ownership until in 1958 the Warwickshire County Council applied for a warrant of abandonment so that it could repair a bridge at Wilmcote more cheaply. Members of the then infant Stratford upon Avon Canal Society were able to produce two licences which proved navigation of the canal within three years of the notice of abandonment made by the council.
The Society, in conjunction with the Inland Waterways Association and the Coventry Canal Society interested the National Trust in acquiring the southern section of the canal for restoration.
Mr David Hutchings was appointed director of operations and, under his leadership, volunteers from various Waterways Societies, Boy Scouts, the Armed Services and later prisoners from Winson Green prison, carried out the restoration work from 1961 to 1964.
The southern section was re-
The canal became one of the most popular in the country, but in spite of the tolls paid by boaters, income always fell short of expenditure. After eleven years of negotiations with various organisations, responsibility for the southern section was transferred to British Waterways on 1st April 1988.
About the Bancroft and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre
The Bancroft was originally an area of land where the townspeople of Stratford-
The basin at Bancroft became surrounded by wharves, warehouses and various businesses connected with the boats that used the canal. This area was crisscrossed by tramlines need to transport the goods handled at the wharves.
A second basin for boats was built in 1826 and trade reached a peak in 1830.
With the advent of the railways, the land around Bancroft became owned by various railway companies. By this time trade had fallen off and the surrounds of the Bancroft had become an eyesore. The theatre at this time was sited further down the riverside.
The canal continued to be used for trade throughout the 1880’s but use dwindled. In 1883 the Corporation (Stratford Council) bought the Bancroft site for the purpose of turning it into a public gardens and walks. The now unsightly mess of buildings was demolished, the second basin filled in and the area landscaped.
There has always been a theatre in this location since 1769, when a temporary wooden building was constructed, promoted by David Garrick, the actor. This was almost washed away by two days of torrential rain causing flooding. (A small theatre, known as the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, had been built in the garden of Shakespeare’s home in the 19th century but had become derelict by 1860).
The first permanent theatre was built, and opened in 1879, known as the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre with an audience capacity of 1400. This burn down in July 1926. As the second canal basin had been infilled, in 1902 a replacement theatre was sited partly on the reclaimed land thus bring it nearer to the gardens.
A new theatre opened in April 1932 and named The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. The actors shared the space in the theatre as had been done in Shakespeare’s time
The theatre thrived for many years providing a focus for the tremendous interest in ‘The Bard of Avon’ and attracted many tourists to Stratford. It was renamed the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1961.
It was decided to develop and refurbish the theatre and work started in 2007. During
this time the Stratford Council decided to re-
The last boat travelled to Bancroft basin in 1920. A number of small boats still plied their trade on the now neglected canal.
As we have seen above, the reopening of the canal was first considered in the early 1960’s. One bone of contention was that Bancroft basin was now in the middle of the new ornamental gardens and the Council appeared to have an aversion to having boats moored in the basin. They put forward an objection opposing any ideas as to the mooring of boats in the basin. It was even proposed that a new cut be opened from lock 55 to enter the River Avon upstream. This proved impractical and costly and never came to fruition.
Work was at this time in motion for the formal opening of the canal, and for the National Boat Rally proposed for summer 1964. The National Trust, who were now owners of the canal, decided that the restoration of the original Bancroft Basin and its lock must go ahead.
After a few turbulent years, the responsibility for Bancroft Basin and gardens was transferred from the National Trust to Stratford Council. They faced their responsibilities and saw that the basin was dredged and essential repairs carried out. The basin was next dredged in the winter of 2010.
The River Avon Navigation
The River Avon is a delightful natural feature, but the navigation we enjoy today was built many years ago by the early pioneers of water transport. They built the navigation not for pleasure, but for commerce.
It was Sir William Sandys, of Fladbury, who was granted ‘Letters Patent’, or permission from King Charles 1st In 1635 to begin the work to make the river Avon navigable from Tewkesbury.
The navigation, was wrecked by the civil war in 1640’s, but after the rebuilding
of destroyed bridges and neglected locks, it re-
In 1712, records of tolls show boats carrying coal, iron, lead, stone, brick, lime,
timber, wine, cider, wheat, barley, corn & flour in barges of 30ft to 45ft long,
and 10 to 12ft wide, carrying 10 to 30 tons. This type of vessel was known as an
up-
Late 1700’s saw the coming of the canal age and competition for trade routes with
the opening of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, and the Warwick & Birmingham Canal,
(later the Grand Union). Stratford canal opened in 1816, originally planned without
a link to the river, but the so called barge lock was added later to allow barge
into to the basin for trans-
From the early 1850’s, with the arrival of the proper railways a large chunk of the waterborne trade from both the canals and the river disappeared.
The owners of the Upper Avon could not raise tolls, and as traffic reduced to a trickle they ceased taking tolls in 1857.
With no maintenance and little traffic, the navigation rapidly became derelict, the last commercial barge running up to Lucy’s Mill, the steam tug ‘Bee’ was forced to run with only partially loaded barges, and finally stopped running in 1873.
The fate of the beautiful Upper Avon was then sealed, it’s locks and weirs abandoned to crumble into the mud, and the river began to return to it’s old unmanaged state. By the 1880’s with the navigation rapidly becoming derelict, the only boats still using Stratford’s waterways were a few commercial narrowboats coming down the Stratford canal, and stopping in the canal basin.
Fortunately, Shakespeare came to Stratford’s rescue when the Memorial Theatre opened in 1886. The second canal basin on the Bancroft was cleared and turned into a large ornamental pond to form part of the new formal riverside gardens.
The Avon, like many other rivers, soon began to attract those who wanted a day out from the Victorian industrial towns, and go boating for pleasure. Boathouses and pleasure boat piers opened up and down the Avon to serve the new day trippers and tourists, but they only problem was that, with the navigation derelict, the boats were limited to short stretches of the river.
Since the 1880’s the river at Stratford had been a long thin boating lake, but that was soon to change with the revival of interest in the inland waterways in the 1950s.
In 1950, the Lower Avon Navigation Trust was formed and over the next 12 years they
steadily replaced old gates and paddles, and rebuilt the old locks until in 1962,
the navigation re-
In 1958, the attempts by WCC and Stratford Borough Council to abandon the Stratford
Canal were foiled by the Stratford Canal Society, and the enthusiastic campaign that
followed resulted in the canal re-
Following the success of the re-
The new navigation would build new weirs, and re-
The new Upper Avon Navigation took slightly longer than William Sandys required to
build, and re-
In 2010 the Lower and Upper Navigation Trusts amalgamated to form the largest independent and privately managed navigation authority in the country, the Avon Navigation Trust.