Chelmer and Blackwater Canal Walk

History

The walk follows the towpath of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation, which joins Chelmsford to the tidal River Blackwater at Heybridge Basin, 13.8 miles away. A navigation between Chelmsford and Maldon was first proposed in 1677, but the port of Maldon, which feared losing revenue, opposed the successive schemes, and it took 120 years from the first proposal to complete the works. Chelmsford people revived the idea in 1792, and the line was moved to end at Heybridge, north of Maldon, which made it two miles longer. The Act setting up the Company of the Proprietors of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation became law on 17 June 1793. John Rennie directed the surveys and designed the locks and bridges, though in practice his assistant Richard Coates directed the construction. The first ship, the Chelmer, carrying wine from Oporto, entered Heybridge Basin in February 1796, and the whole navigation opened on 3 June 1797, by which time it had cost nearly £50,000.

The barges were 60 feet long by 16 feet wide and drew only 2 feet, which made it the shallowest navigation in the country. They carried coal, timber, bricks and stone inland and grain and flour out, and commercial traffic lasted until 1972, with timber from coasters at Heybridge Basin going up to Chelmsford. The original company went into administration in August 2003. On 14 November 2005 Essex Waterways Ltd, a subsidiary of the Inland Waterways Association, took over the management of the navigation; on 31 March 2025 ownership of that company passed to Essex Waterways Navigation Trust, a charity, and the trust and its subsidiary now manage and maintain the waterway. The freehold remains with the original company.