Somersetshire Coal Canal

Last Updated on Monday, 04 January 2010 18:12 Saturday, 26 December 2009 12:25

Total length 10_ miles waterway 15 miles tramway

Act of Parliament 1794 Surveyors John Rennie
William Jessop
William Smith
Completed and opened 1801

Copyright© Somerset Waterways Development Trust 2007 . All rights reserved.

The canal ran from the Kennet & Avon Canal at Limpley Stoke to Paulton and Radstock. (Never completed as a canal.) Until the 1870s was one of the most profitable waterways in the country, carrying coal from the many collieries for distribution throughout Southern England. With the coming of the Bristol & North Somerset Railway profits rapidly declined and in 1893 a Receiver was put in and the canal closed in 1898 then was abandoned in 1904. The canal to Paulton was purchased by GWR and the Limpley Stoke to Camerton branch built on the bed of the canal using the Coombe Hay tunnel and several of the canal bridges. This part of the route was immortalised in the film “The Titfield Thunderbolt”.

The Canal Today – In spite of railway building and over a century of abandonment, many substantial remains still exist. The aqueduct at Midford carrying the canal part of the Radstock branch has been extensively restored by the Somersetshire Coal Canal Society and Bath Historic Buildings Trust. Unique “Caisson Locks” were proposed to overcome the sudden rise in the land at Coombe Hay. Two or three were built but the Fullers Earth strata made the masonry unstable so they were abandoned and replaced by the spectacular flight of 22 locks, the remains of which can be viewed from a public footpath. A short section of canal at Dundas (Limpley Stoke) has been restored and is in water, connected to the Kennet & Avon canal and is used as moorings and as a base for several canal based small businesses.