LIMIT OF MOTORISED NAVIGATION, Inglesham

Junction with River Coln and Thames and Severn Canal

Above the modern footbridge on the right bank largely hidden by trees is first the mouth of the River Coln. This river sometimes produces as much water as the Thames coming from Cricklade.

And then 20 yards above it is the entrance to the Thames and Severn Canal:


The Roundhouse and, under the bridge, the first lock on the Thames and Severn Canal, full of scaffolding, 2018

1859: The Thames, Mr & Mrs Hall

The Thames and Severn Canal was commenced in 1782, and opened in 1789; but, so far back as the time of Charles II., the scheme of thus uniting the two great rivers of England had been entertained; and Pope mentions that to effect this object was a cherished thought of Lord Bathurst, "when he had finer dreams than ordinary." In 1782 Mr. Robert Whitworth, an eminent engineer, "formed plans and estimates", and, in the following year, an act was passed for carrying them into operation; it was completed within seven years, the first boat passing through on the 19th of November, 1789.
"This navigable canal (we quote from Boydell) begins at Wallbridge, where the Stroud navigation ends, and proceeds to the immediate vicinity of Lechlade, where it joins the Thames, taking a course of thirty miles seven chains and a half. From Stroud to Sapperton comprehends a length of seven miles and three furlongs, with a rise of two hundred and forty-one feet three inches; from Sapperton to Upper Siddington, including the branch to Cirencester, nine miles eight chains and a half, and is perfectly level; and from Upper Siddington to the Thames near Lechlade. it continues a course of thirteen miles four furlongs and nine chains, with a fall of one hundred and thirty feet six inches; the general breadth of the canal is forty two feet at the top, and thirty feet at the bottom."

1910:

1876: Map of Round House Lock, junction of Thames, Thames & Severn Canal and River Coln:
The River Thames is the right hand channel; the River Coln joins from the west (left) downstream of the canal junction (above in the map); the Thames and Severn Canal is quite broad (left, bottom) and then narrows into the lock; the canal towpath continues past the lock, over the bridge and then to the right of the the Thames.

Map of Round House Lock, junction of Thames, Thames & Severn Canal and River Coln, 1876
Map of Round House Lock, junction of Thames, Thames & Severn Canal and River Coln, 1876

Lechlade Footbridge

The old footbridge in the map above was from the left of the modern bridge, over to the downstream side of the Round House.
There was also a bridge over the canal at the tail of the lock

Lechlade Footbridge
Lechlade Footbridge, Most boats should turn before the bridge

The modern wooden footbridge marks the limit of navigation for most powered craft.  Most powered boats should turn below the footbridge.
Above here the river slowly becomes its natural self without the benefit of weirs and locks.  It becomes shallower, less well maintained, weedy and swifter. In a powered boat above here you are much more at risk of grounding, and tangling in branches and thorn bushes and finding swift currents than you are below here. Even in an unpowered boat you may have problems.

River Coln

1690: Baskervile - Coln Flu  [Flu = Flumen = River] -

Here conjunctions, famous prove,
On the score of united love,
Ffor here about Cown River wends,
Its waters into little Temes,
And so these pleasing bankes they wash,
And help the boats, down with a flash.

1922: River Coln in Roundabout the Upper Thames by Alfred Williams

The waters of the Thames, in the neighbourhood of Inglesham and Lechlade, are augmented with the addition of several tributary streams that flow down from the north and south, draining the localities through which they pass.
The principal of these are the Coln, the Cole, and the Leach.

The Coln is a swift-flowing trout stream rising in the Cotswolds and joining the Thames at the Round House, near Inglesham church.
The Cole has its origin at the foot of the Wiltshire Downs, and flows by way of Sevenhampton and Coleshill;
and the small river Leach, also a trout stream, bubbles out of the rock near Northleach, twelve miles distant to the north-west.

Of these tributaries the Coln is the most beautiful.
It is like a lovely laughing bride, crowned with flowers on her marriage morning, fresh, sweet, and pure, radiant with happiness, whose face, kissed with the morning sunshine, sends a gleam through the world and rejuvenates everything, shedding a new glory — "the light that never was" — on all around her, and adding an unspeakable gift — a moment of immortality.
And how lightly and gaily she trips along, with feet that seem not to tread the ground, moving half on earth and half in the air, with a graceful, jaunty, bird-like motion that only blithe-hearted youth could execute, bewitching in her exquisite ease and simple natural loveliness!
Even so beautiful is the Coln, swimming along over her stony bed through the fields, laughing aloud in the sunlight, flowing, flowing, ever flowing, clear and pure as though composed of nothing but freshest dewdrops, each one resplendent with the morning, twinkling in the glorious light of the unutterable dawn hours.
The smile on her face, the musical ripple of her voice, the sweet pouting of her lips where the stones oppose her passage, the shadow no sooner received than dispelled, the snow-white foam flakes borne like bunches of lilies on her breast, her long flowing hair streaming in the crystal, the graceful and voluptuous sweep of her skirts at yonder curve, the silver sandals of her restless gliding feet, her gauze like garments of the summer fields, green and gold, white, opal, and purple, the flash of multicoloured light reflected from the plumage of her attendant kingfishers, her joy and bloom and perfect beauty are all-powerful and irresistible.
Heaven is in her eyes; Laughter is in her soul; the spirit of eternal Youth is about her and within her, and she has no secrets.
She is a symbol of Life at its earliest and holiest hours, when the earth is newly awake and full of sunshine and song, and all things are freely and easily fathomable, before Sorrow's fruit hangs on the bough, the heavens are overcast, and we draw near to the depths that conceal who knows how many pains and afflictions, filled as they are with the doom of ourselves and all other earthly things.

Check flood risk

Thames & Severn Canal

Right bank.

Round House

Right bank
1789: November 14th, the Thames and Severn Canal was opened. The Gentleman's Magazine -

A boat, with the union flag at her masthead, passed laden for the first time to St John's Bridge, below Lechlade, in the presence of great numbers of people, who answered a salute of twelve pieces of cannon from Buscot Park by loud huzzas.  A dinner was given at five of the principal inns at Lechlade, and the day ended with ringing of bells, a bonfire, and a ball.

1793: Thames & Severn Canal, Lechlade Lock -

Thames and Canal near Lechlade Boydell 1793
Junction of the Thames and Canal near Lechlade. June 1, 1793. J. Farington R.A. delt. J.C. Stadler sculpt.
(Published) by J. & J.Boydell, Shakespeare Gally. Pall Mall & (No. 90) Cheapside (London)

The 1793 print of the canal first lock shows no trees around here.  The spire of St John's Church Lechlade is visible in the distance.

1811: The Thames, or Graphic Illustrations of seat, villas, public buildings ...


The Round House, 1811

1821: William Cobbett, Rural Rides

The land here and all around Cricklade is very fine. Here are some of the finest pastures in England, and some of the finest dairies of cows ...
I saw in one single farmyard here more food than enough for four times the inhabitants of the parish; and this yard did not contain a tenth, perhaps, of the produce of the parish; but while the poor creatures that raise the wheat and the barley and cheese and the mutton and the beef are living upon potatoes, an accursed Canal comes kindly through the parish to convey away the wheat and all the good food to the tax-eaters and their attendants in the Wen! [i.e. to London ] Is this an "improvement"? Is a nation richer for the carrying away of the food from those who raise it, and giving it to bayonet men and others, who are assembled in great masses? ... It is eaten, for the main part, by those who do not work.

William Cobbett was a man with an "attitude". Today he would be making much the same point fighting for fair trade with the third world - and hopefully might look a little more kindly on our waterways!

1859: The Thames, Mr & Mrs Hall

1859: The Canal and the Roundhouse. Now there are trees, though not as thickly as today -

Lechlade Roundhouse and Canal, 1859
Lechlade Roundhouse and Canal, 1859.

Notice in 1859 there was a footbridge over the main river just above the canal entry.  The modern footbridge is 50 yards further downstream.

THE BARGE
THE BARGE

We have now arrived at that point in the Thames where it becomes navigable for boats of burthen; the canal conveys in barges, each from thirty to sixty tons, the produce of the four quarters of the globe into several parts of England; the port of Bristol is thus united with that of London; other canals are combined with this: and so an internal communication was formed, the value of which may be readily estimated before the introduction of steam. But the railways have placed this mode of traffic almost in abeyance, — the canals are comparatively idle, and ere long, perhaps, will be altogether deserted. The passage of a boat through the lock is now an event of rare occurrence: it is seldom opened more than once or twice in a week. Greater speed is obtained by the railway, of course, but the chief impediment arises from the cost incurred in passing through the locks and weirs along the Thames, — strange as it may seem, the expense hence arising to a laden boat of sixty tons burthen, between Teddington, where the locks begin, and Lechlade, where they terminate, is not less than thirty pounds. The natural consequence is, that steam absorbs all the traffic, except to places remote from stations; and then boats are in use only for heavy cargoes, chiefly timber and coal. The barges here used are necessarily long and narrow, — the appended engraving will convey an accurate notion of their form; — they are generally drawn up the river by two horses, and down the river by one, along the "towing-path" — a footpath by the river-side. The towing-paths between Lechlade and Oxford, in consequence of the causes we have observed upon, are so little disturbed as to be scarcely perceptible: they are for the most part so "grass-o'ergrown" as to be distinguished from the meadow only after a careful search. Indeed, all along the Thames bank to Lechlade, and much lower, almost until we approach Oxford, there is everywhere a singular and impressive solitude: of traffic there is little or none; the fields are almost exclusively pasture-land; the villages are usually distant; of gentlemen's seats there are few, and these are generally afar off; the mills are principally situated on "back-water"; and but for the pleasant cottages, nearly all of which are peasant hostelries, which, in their immediate relation to the locks and weirs, necessarily stand on the river-bank, with now and then a ferry-house, the whole of the landscape for nearly forty miles from the river source would seem as completely denuded of population as an African desert. Between Kemble and Lechlade we did not meet two boats of any kind, and only at the lock-houses did we encounter a dozen people — except at the few villages of which we have taken note. This loneliness has its peculiar charm to the wayfarer; — it will be long ere we lose remembrance of the enjoyment we derived from a reflective saunter beside the banks of the grand old river, where solitude invites to thought —

The blackbird's note comes mellower from the dale,
And sweeter from the sky the gladsome lark
Warbles his heaven-tuned song.

1885: Lechlade Roundhouse and Canal. The trees had grown a little more

Inglesham Round House 1885
Inglesham Round House, The Royal River, 1885.

1888: from " The Thames: Oxford to its Source" by Paul Blake -

Less than a mile from Lechlade stands the Round House, as the lock-house is called which guards the entrance to the Severn and Thames Canal.
The River Colne chooses the same spot to effect a junction with the Thames, so that there are three streams meeting.
The tower-like erection has a novel appearance to strangers, and, backed by tall poplars, has a striking effect.
The river now turns sharply to the left under the towpath bridge, and the navigable part is over, at least as regards barges and large boats. Soon after a turn to the right brings the stream and canal nearly parallel.

1889: A Pictorial History of the Thames, A.S.Krausse -

... the triple junction which it makes with the Thames and Severn Canal and the River Colne at Inglesham, the head of the commercial navigation, and th beginning of the wide and masterful Thames, of which we are all so proud.
The scene at Inglesham Round House is exceedingly picturesque - in the centre the curious tower which provides a home for the canal lock keeper; on either side the Thames and the Colne, while behind rolls the greatly widened river, mementarily acquiring new strength in its progress towards the distant sea.


Inglesham Roundhouse, Krausse 1889

The view of Inglesham Round House here produced serves to show that the entrance to the Thames and Severn has not been altered much during the present century [1800? - 1889].
The tower bears the marks of time upon its surface and accords well, in its subdued colouring, with the ample verdure to be seen around.

1890: most of these trees had gone again; Inglesham Round House, Henry Taunt -

Inglesham Round House, Henry Taunt, 1890
Inglesham Round House, Henry Taunt, 1890
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT3770

In 1889 Krausse describes the "ample verdure" but by 1890 the photograph shows a different picture!

1906: Henry Wellington Wack, In Thamesland -

The junction of the Thames, Coln, and Canal, is a picturesque spot. A "Round House" stands in the shade of the slender alders, a sturdy bridge spans the canal, and the locks and weirs seem stagnant from disuse. The canal is in fact a thing of the past; the pudgy old barge of burthen is now a hulk in a shipyard for wrecks, or in the coal service of the lower Thames; the tow path is narrowed - almost obliterated - by an overgrowth of grass and osier, gladdened here and there with the peeping violet and daisy.
For forty miles from its source the river's banks are asleep in solitude. Nothing but the hum of insects, the pipe of the moor-hen, or the rippling song of a jetty, enlivens the serenity of the scene.
Now and then a moss-grown mill creaks its rusty wheel in a backwater and, when the wind is right, the distant din of the toiling town may be faintly heard. The quiet evening is sweet with a loveliness that refreshes both the heart and the mind. You love England for her recreative repose.

1909: Fred Thacker in his Stripling Thames wrote -

Half a mile above Lechlade stands the Round House, two hundred and fifty feet above sea level.
This Martello tower-like structure, with its poplar group reminiscent of Iffley, but much more ragged, marks the junction of the Thames, the Thames and Severn Canal, and the Colne.
The Thames comes round from the southwest; and the canal is the midmost of the three, barred by lock gates.
It was opened under very high auspices and with golden hopes in 1799, its bed of thirty miles having taken seven years to excavate.
"The canal cutters," says Mr. Hutton, "must have been quite a colony in Lechlade; the registers for one year shew six deaths and four baptisms" amongst them.
It has always, however, been more or less unsuccessful, usually more.
The Great Western Railway bought it up in 1893 and forthwith closed it.
A trust formed by Act of Parliament then reopened it in 1895, with an annual guarantee of six hundred pounds for thirty years from various county and district councils.
But the constant repairs necessary from its long summit level in porous limestone have proved too expensive for its income, and it is still maintained at a heavy loss.

1911: Inglesham Round House, W Parker -

Inglesham Round House, W Parker, 1911
Inglesham Round House, W Parker, 1911
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; D230399a

1922: The Round House and Thames and Severn Canal in Roundabout the Upper Thames by Alfred Williams

Below [Inglesham] church, shaded by a group of Lombardy poplars, is a building called the Round House, guarding the entrance to the old Thames and Severn Canal, which was once a great highway for those trading between the ports of London, Bristol, and Gloucester.
...
The canal, with its once broad and deep channel and elaborate system of locks, after being in use for over a century, is neglected now.
Its construction was formerly looked upon as a great engineering feat.
Hopes were entertained of an endless period of usefulness and prosperity for the waterway; but the possibilities of the steam engine had not then been entertained, nor could any foretell the wondrous inventions and revolutions to be effected throughout the globe within less than a century from that time.
The Round House is much frequented by tourists and holiday parties during the summer months.
The very name of the place excites a pleasing curiosity and impels one to go and see it.
There is, moreover, the joy of rambling along the shores of the deep, wise river, of watching for otters and kingfishers, or plucking the flowers that bloom on the bank or about the deep trenched meadows.
Formerly the house was occupied by the lock keeper, who superintended the traffic passing through the gates and received the tolls.
Now the old blacksmith has taken up his abode there and lives in semi-retirement.
He still keeps a small tin of borax, begged from the bargeman who piloted the last load through the locks, in memory of that event.
Some of this he occasionally uses for welding steel tackle, such as grains of forks and pickaxes.
...
The canal, that cuts across from Inglesham to Kempsford almost touches the river beyond the church and then continues away to Cricklade.
There are several locks of great depth between Inglesham and Kempsford, and others occur at intervals to beyond the Thames Head.
They bear witness to the constant rise towards the river's source; if the fall at each lock were carefully ascertained and a table given it would discover a dedivity that would not be guessed by merely following the channel of the stream.
The stones that compose the bases of the bridges are ready to tumble into the shallow water; the wharves are ruined, the towpaths deserted, and the bed is choked with vegetation.
"The closin' o' this canal was like takin' a link out o' the middle of a chain", says the old bargemen as he sits and calmly smokes his pipe, while his wife stitches away at a new shirt for her grandson, and looks over the top of her spectacles to note the effect of her good-man's words.
For more than half a century they had lived in the barges.
Backwards and forwards, year after year, they travelled with their burdens of corn, cheese, coal, stone, and timber, at one time frozen in for weeks at a stretch, at another aground for days in the dark tunnel, and again washed out into the mouth of the Severn by the boisterous tide.
Yet, though they suffered hardships, they were fond of the life and were never so happy as when gliding through the beautiful meadows, or halting for the night in some seduded spot above the lock, where the spouting water gushes out musically of a warm summer's evening.
Both the bargeman and his wife are stout and robust.
"It don' look as if it 'urted arn an us, do it?" inquires the dance, with a broad smile, again looking up over the rims of her spectacles.
The most alarming accident that the old bargeman had experienced occurred at Bristol Docks.
There he had his barge alongside a steamer that was taking on board sacks of corn, when one of the sacks, raised to a great height by the crane, slipped from the chain and, striking him upon the breast, threw him into the water and carried him to the bottom of the dock, twenty-five feet deep.
On reaching the bottom he got free, however, and in less than half a minute from the time of falling he was on top again and was hoisted into the boat.
"Be 'e gwain to Cricklut, mother?" inquired the bargeman, Adam Twine, of the stout old dame who, with basket on arm, took the towpath at Marston bridge on her way to the town one afternoon.
"Aa, I be,” she replied.
"If you likes to jump in you can ride. We be off directly", said he.
"Oh Lar'! I never bin aboord ship but I'll come wi' thee.
'Tool rest mi vit an' legs a bit,” answered the old woman.
Accordingly she got in and went below and sat in the cabin, and the two conversed on various subjects.
Meanwhile the boat had started noiselessly and without a tremor.
The boy was at the rudder and the conversation was maintained.
By and by mother became fidgetty.
"'Ow much longer bist agwain to be afoore thas starts?" she inquired at length.
"Afoore 'e starts!" exclaimed old Adam.
"Aa! cos I be tired o' waitin' yer. 'E could a got 'aaf-way ther' bi this time,” she continued.
"We shall stop in two or dree minutes, mother,” said the boatman.
"Stop another two or dree minutes! Why essent a telled ma as tha wassent agwain to start afoore, nat kip anybody yer an' make a fool an ma.
I could a got ther' bi now if I 'edna looked aater thee,” cried she, burning with indignation.
Just then the boat gave a bump — they had come alongside the wharf.
"Yer us be, mother.
You can get out now, an' mind not fall in an' be drownded,” said Adam.
"Lark a massey! What! be we at Cricklut, then? An' I didn' know as we'd a started,” exclaimed she, stepping out of the boat in amazement.

1960: Inglesham Round House, Francis Frith -

1960: Inglesham Round House, Francis Frith
1960: Inglesham Round House, Francis Frith.

1999: Inglesham Roundhouse. The trees are back with a vengeance. All the way down the Thames it seems to me the same story - there are now far more trees than ever there were in the last few centuries. Trees were free fuel for poor cottagers, every one of whom had an axe. Suddenly the world has changed and the trees are back -

Inglesham Roundhouse, 1999
Inglesham Roundhouse, 1999.

Inglesham, Ashley Bryant
Inglesham, the Round House, Ashley Bryant

The top of the round house (canal lock house) is just visible in the above two pictures.  It has lost a storey or more.
The junction with the Severn and Thames canal is dry at this point (2003) and little sign of the canal is visible from the river.  (It is under the Weeping Willow.)
The canal line is not far from the river all the way to Cricklade. It was said that the intention was to restore this section of the canal by 2008 (funding permitting). Needless to say - funding did not permit - but it might just yet happen

Of which the bards have sung in visionary dreams,
The union of Sabrina's floods with silver Thames.

[ Silver teams? - pity about the rhyme! - or alternatively maybe they were "visionary drams"? ]
Sabrina is supposedly the goddess of the Severn - though one somehow doubts that anyone who lived near the Severn was ever consulted.
One day soon, we hope, there will be a reference here to where to turn for going on up the Canal
We for now however (if our boat is suitable, or on foot) continue on up the river.