The Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation is the canalisation of the Rivers Chelmer and Blackwater in Essex, in the east of England. The navigation runs for from Springfield Basin in Chelmsford to the sea lock at Heybridge Basin near Maldon. Initial plans faced spirited opposition from Maldon, which were overcome by avoiding the town and terminating at Heybridge, and the navigation opened in 1797. There were some teething problems, and the engineer John Rennie was called back on two occasions to recommend improvements. The impact of the railways was less severe than on many canals, as there was never a direct line between Chelmsford and Maldon. The sea lock at Heybridge was enlarged after the Second World War, but trade gradually declined and ceased in 1972.
Unlike most canals, it was not nationalised in 1948, and remained under the control of the original company. The first leisure boats to use the navigation did so in 1973, when the Inland Waterways Association organised a rally at Chelmsford. Springfield Basin was restored in 1992, but the proprietors faced bankruptcy in 2003, and after two years of negotiation, Essex Waterways Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Inland Waterways Association, took over responsibility for management, although the proprietors retained ownership.
Because Essex and Suffolk Water abstracts water from the navigation to supply Hanningfield Reservoir, it has a statutory obligation to maintain the outer gates at Heybridge sea lock, to prevent salt water entering the drinking water supply. The company undertook major refurbishment work at the lock during the winters of 2016/17 and 2017/18, including replacement of the outer sea gate with a new design. A long-standing ambition, first proposed in 1985, has been to provide a better destination at Chelmsford, by providing access for boats to the town centre. A proposed link from Springfield Basin was thwarted by road building in the area, but a plan to replace the automatic weir below Chelmsford Town Centre with a new structure incorporating a navigation lock was recommended in 2020.
Route The navigation runs from Springfield Basin in Chelmsford to the sea lock at Heybridge Basin near Maldon. It has six bridges and drops through 12 locks from the basin to the sea. There is also a set of flood gates at Beeleigh, which prevents water from the River Blackwater flooding the cut to Heybridge Basin. The navigation meanders in a broadly west to east direction between Chelmsford and Maldon, through countryside which is largely arable, and although it passes near to a number of villages, all of them are set back some distance from the waterway.
History Prior to the actual construction of the navigation, there had been almost 120 years of proposals for such a scheme, and opposition from the port of Maldon, which anticipated that its revenues would fall if vessels could travel to Chelmsford. The first such scheme was proposed in 1677 by Andrew Yarranton, who published his idea in a work entitled England's Improvements by Sea and Land. Maldon objected and the scheme came to nothing. In July 1733, John Hore, who was involved in the Kennet, Stroudwater, and the Avon Navigation at Bristol, proposed two schemes, one to make the river navigable, and another to create a new cut between Chelmsford and Maldon. Despite the projected extra costs for a canal, Hore favoured the canal scheme, as he believed there would be less objection from the millers along the river route. Maldon again objected on commercial grounds, and the scheme was dropped.
The next schemes were proposed in 1762, when the canal engineers John Smeaton and Thomas Yeoman both carried out surveys for a possible route. Yeoman produced a second plan in 1765, and this was presented to Parliament. Yeoman had a high standing as a civil engineer, and the opponents to the scheme tried to engage a suitable engineer to counter the proposal, but many of the obvious choices, including James Brindley, declined because they were too busy. Eventually, Ferdinando and William Stratford took on the task, but both caught ague and fever, from which Ferdinando died, while William was ill for a year but then recovered. An act of Parliament to authorise the plan, the (6 Geo. 3. c. 101), was passed on 6 June 1766, with the stipulation that the work must be completed within 12 years, and that no work could start until 25 per cent of the capital had been raised. The scheme foundered because the required capital had not been subscribed.
Peter Muilman, a Dutch merchant living in London (and the father of Richard) called a meeting in Chelmsford on 2 October 1772, to propose improvements to the river, but a subsequent meeting decided that a new cut would be a better solution. Muilman announced that this scheme would probably not require any locks, and advocated that he should build it once Robert Whitworth had surveyed it, but nothing came of this. Finally in 1792, with navigations in other parts of the country bringing increased prosperity to the towns they served, the people of Chelmsford decide to avoid the opposition of Maldon by bypassing it, and terminating the navigation at Heybridge, on the River Blackwater below Maldon. Under the direction of John Rennie Charles Wedge surveyed the route in 1792 and Matthew Hall surveyed it in 1793. The new route would increase the length of the navigation by about , but this plan formed the basis of a parliamentary bill. Despite spirited opposition by Maldon, the bill became an act of Parliament, the (33 Geo. 3. c. 93), on 17 June 1793, creating The Company of the Proprietors of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation, with powers to raise £40,000 by the issuing of shares, and a further £20,000 if required. Work started soon afterwards, and although John Rennie was officially chief engineer, the project was managed by Richard Coates, who had also assisted Rennie on the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation. The grave of Richard Coates stands in Springfield churchyard, while Rennie's original survey book for the canal has been preserved.
The port of Maldon now tried to mitigate their loss, and with advice from Benjamin Latrobe, produced a plan to improve the Blackwater through Maldon to its junction with the Chelmer at Beeleigh, which was submitted to Parliament in 1793. Realising that this would make the final cut to Heybridge redundant, the navigation company opposed the bill, and it was defeated. Latrobe submitted a revised scheme in April 1795, which was also defeated. This marked the end of his engineering career in Britain, as he emigrated to America shortly afterwards. Work continued on the navigation, with the first section from Heybridge Basin to Little Baddow opening in April 1796 and the navigation opening throughout on 3 June 1797. The final cost was around £50,000.
Operation When completed, the length of the navigation was . 12 locks lowered the level of the navigation by from Springfield Basin in Chelmsford to the sea lock at Heybridge Basin. An additional stop lock protected the new cut from flooding at Beeleigh. Here, the navigation left the course of the River Chelmer, and joined that of the River Blackwater, before entering the final of cut to Heybridge Basin. The waters of the River Blackwater were diverted into the Chelmer, flowing over a weir between Beeleigh Lock and the stop gates. The navigation was constructed with only of water, which was the lowest statutory draught for any of the English commercial waterways. The maximum headroom is . The locks were constructed to take barges which were and each could carry around 25 tons. They were horse-drawn, and remained so until the 1960s, when diesel outboard motors were fitted. The only branch was a cut to Langford Mill, built privately by Mr Westcomb. It was well used until the 1870s, but was unused after 1881.
A community developed around Heybridge Basin, with Richard Tovee, a sawyer by trade, and Thomas Malden, a coal merchant, both buying plots of land to further their trade. The Navigation Company built a granary, which was used to store perishable goods, while rope-makers and boat builders also established themselves nearby. Soon a pub and a brewery appeared, and the settlement steadily grew in size.
The Navigation experienced some teething problems, with floods in 1797 creating shoals which prevented the passage of barges. These got steadily worse, until Rennie was called back in 1799 to address the problem. Rennie was again recalled in 1805, when the mill owners complained about leakage through the locks and requested damages. Further improvements were made, including the rebuilding of Heybridge sea lock by James Green, and trade developed steadily. The first inland gasworks in Britain was built in Chelmsford in 1819, using coal brought up the navigation. Besides coal, bricks, stone, timber and general cargo was carried from Heybridge to Chelmsford, and the major cargo in the reverse direction was grain and flour. Local wharfs served the communities of Little Baddow, Boreham, Ulting and Heybridge. At its peak in the mid 19th century, the canal was carrying over 60,000 tons of cargo per year.
Locks The twelve locks on the navigation are: +Locks on the Chelmer and Blackwater NavigationLock nameLock numberFall (or rise) of lock,
feet & inches (metres)OS Grid RefDistance from Springfield Basin, miles (km)Springfield Lock13’ 9” (1.14 m)TL7160630.3 (0.5 km)Barnes Mill Lock25’ 6” (1.68 m)TL7290641.0 (1.6 km)Sandford Mill Lock37’ 0” (2.13 m)TL7390631.9 (3.1 km)Cuton Lock44’ 0” (1.22 m)TL7430772.85 (4.6 km)Stoneham's Lock55’ 0” (1.52 m)TL7520823.75 (6.0 km)Little Baddow Mill Lock66’ 0” (1.82 m)TL7580834.4 (7.1 km)Paper Mill Lock76’ 4” (1.93 m)TL7760895.7 (9.2 km)Rushe's Lock86’ 3” (1.91 m)TL7950897.1 (11.4 km)Hoe Mill Lock98’ 3” (2.51 m)TL8070838.2 (13.2 km)Rickett's Lock106’ 0” (1.83 m)TL8270879.4 (15.1 km)Beeleigh Lock115’ 6” (1.68 m)TL83808310.3 (16.6 km)Beeleigh flood gate––TL84008310.4 (16.7 km)Heybridge Sea Lock1214’ 10” (4.52 m)TL87106813.75 (22.1 km)
Decline The Eastern Counties Railway reached Chelmsford in 1843, and a branch line from Witham reached Maldon in 1848, but there was never a direct line between the two towns. Although trade declined, the impact of the railways was less significant than on many canals. Following the Second World War, the sea lock into Heybridge Basin was extended to , so that coasters carrying timber from the continent could enter the basin to transfer their cargo to barges. Traffic slowly declined until the last load of timber was delivered to Browns Yard (now Travis Perkins) on Springfield Basin in 1972. Although commercial traffic ceased, the navigation continued to derive income from water abstraction and from the sale of wood from the willows which grow along the banks. The willow is used for making cricket bats, and the trees were first planted in the 1880s when one of the directors saw the need for alternative sources of income.
The navigation is unusual in that it was not nationalised in 1948 when most of the other waterways in the UK were, and remained under the control of the original Company of Proprietors of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Ltd.
Leisure era