8:10am Sunday 5th October 2008
By Peter Law
TODAY you can get from Southampton to Winchester in a matter of minutes by rail or by road – depending on the traffic on our notorious motorways, of course. In an age of budget air travel and global container shipping the 11-mile journey may seem like a mere walk in the park, but it was an altogether different proposition in the bygone era of Britain’s inland canal system.
For more than 150 years – from 1710 to 1869 – a narrow man-modified river was one of the most important links between the two cities. The Itchen Navigation, created using existing river channels combined with new cuts, effectively opened the former capital of England to the sea.
Tireless work horses towed barges loaded with tonnes of coal, salt, corn, iron and chalk up and down the vital trade route, come rain or shine.
Driven inland by the Napoleonic Wars raging in the English Channel, goods were off-loaded at Southampton, taken overland to Basingstoke and finished their journey in London by waterway again.
At its busiest, six barges moved all the traffic along the route, which those living nearby called the Barge River, or the New Barge.
The water itself was used to power mills in the area and was also channelled onto the water meadows adjacent to the Navigation. In its final form the Navigation had 15 locks and two half-locks, with a combined rise of about 105ft from mean sea level at Woodmill to Winchester.
By the 1830s, Southampton had become interested in a scheme that was to compete directly with the Navigation and eventually bring about its downfall.
The advent of the London and South Western Railway meant there was no longer a need for the Navigation and the last barge to carry a cargo to Winchester tied up at Blackbridge Wharf in June 1869.
Almost 140 years on and the Navigation still snakes its way from Northam, past Eastleigh and on to Winchester, but it is barely recognisable from the canals still popular with leisure boaters in other parts of the country.
Forgotten by many, it has suffered from decades of neglect.
Much of the towpath has been washed away by erosion and overgrown by trees, while parts of the chalk banks are in danger of collapsing, which could lead to the drying out of the waterway.
However, something remarkable has happened.
The Navigation has developed its own unique ecology and is home to a variety of wildlife, including water voles, otters, bats, southern damselfly, bullhead, Atlantic salmon and brook lamprey.
Which is why a £2.4m rescue mission to safeguard its future was this week launched by the Environment Agency (EA) and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (HIWWT).
Over the next two years, engineering and maintenance work, made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, will restore the riverbanks and footpath.
The project team – including wildlife trust staff and river engineers – have begun work at Allbrook, at an area where the Navigation has overtopped and breached in the past.
EA area team leader Rod Murchie said: “It is such an important asset to Hampshire, it gives life to so much in the region and is the source of drinking water for about 250,000 people in the region.”
Remnants of some of the industrial structures used in the past, such as locks, mills and bridges can still be seen today, and volunteers are being urged to come forward to help with the restoration. There will also be a series of art projects, new signs and educational panels along the route of the Navigation.
Heritage Lottery Fund spokeswoman Michelle Davies said: “The Navigation is a unique piece of heritage with both natural and industrial elements side by side. Through the preservation the public will be able to enjoy and learn about the history they have right on their doorstep.”
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