Brief History of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation
Schemes to connect Chelmsford to the sea were investigated as early as the middle of the 17th Centaury. However these were all abandoned as being too costly or because of objections from mill owners and the people of Maldon. Finally in June 1793 an Act of parliament was passed authorising the construction of what we now know as the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. The first meeting of The Company of proprietors of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Ltd was held in July 1793 at the Black Boy Hotel, Chelmsford. This Hotel stood at the junction of the High Street and Springfield Road where NEXT is now to be found.
Building the navigation started in the autumn of 1793 with John Rennie (1761 - 1821) as the principle engineer. As he was also building the Lancaster and Kennet & Avon Canals at the same time the day to day running of the construction was left to Richard Coates who had previously worked with Rennie on other canals in East Anglia.
The first section from Haybridge basin to Little Baddow was open by the spring of 1796 and the rest of the navigation to Chelmsford the following year. The first inland gas works in Britain was built in Chelmsford using coal brought up the navigation. At its peek in the mid 19th Centaury the canal was carrying over 60,000 tons of cargo per year. This slowly declined until the last load of timber was delivered to Browns Yard on Springfield Basin (now Travis & Perkins) in 1972.
With the end of cargo carrying Springfield Lock and the basin fell into disuse. The Company survived mainly by selling the wood from the willow trees that grow along the sides of the navigation. This wood was used for the manufacture of cricket bats and many a famous English victory could have been due to the wood from the navigation. By the early 1990is there was a real danger that Springfield Basin and Lock would be lost as it was being vandalized and the channel silting up. The Chelmsford Branch of the Inland Waterways Association stepped in and restored the Lock and feeder channel to the basin and arranged for dredging.
The Company of proprietors of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Ltd continues to own the canal but a deep financial crisis forced it into Administration in August 2003.
In November 2005 The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) signed a maintenance and operating agreement with the Administrator of The Company of Proprietors of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Ltd, to take over responsibility for the running of the navigation through a wholly owned subsidiary Essex Waterways Ltd.
This brief history of the Chelmer and Blackwater navigation is based on the work of the late John Marriage to whom we are indebted.