Grand Western Canal

History

The Grand Western Canal began as an eighteenth-century idea of the engineer James Brindley to link the Bristol and English Channels, which would have let shipping avoid the long and dangerous voyage round Cornwall. An initial 11-mile section opened in 1814 between Tiverton and limestone quarries at Westleigh, but building costs had escalated because steep embankments and deep cuttings were needed to cross the Devon countryside. The next section, to Taunton, was not finished until 1838, by which time hope of reaching the English Channel had been abandoned.

The canal's one brief period of profit came in the 1840s, carrying coal and limestone, before the Bristol and Exeter Railway brought competition. In 1865 the eastern section from Taunton to Lowdwells was sold and abandoned. The limestone trade kept the rest open until 1925, when persistent leaks led to a section near Halberton being dammed off, and the canal was then left unused apart from a local lily-harvesting business.

By the 1960s plans had been drawn up to fill in part of the canal at Tiverton for housing, and a 'Save the Canal' campaign, which included a walk in 1969, was fought and won. In 1971 Devon County Council took on ownership and declared the canal a Country Park. The towpath is a public right of way for the full 11 and a quarter miles from the Canal Basin at Tiverton to Lowdwells, close to the Somerset border; the council owns the park and its Ranger Service manages it.