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Summary

1769 canal basin, infilled in the mid 20th century

Monument Types

• CANAL (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• CANAL BASIN (1769, Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

The canalisation of the Stort to carry trade vessels was largely inspired by George Jackson. Work began after an Act of Parliament in 1765 and was completed in 1769, when the first barge arrived at the Bishop's Stortford wharves. Several stretches of the river were canalised utilising fifteen locks, beginning at Feildes Weir near Hoddesdon [7268] where the Stort joins the Lea, and terminating at a canal basin in Bishop’s Stortford. The basin has been infilled and the town library and multistorey car park built over it <1>.
The basin was constructed on previously marshy and undeveloped land, and appears on a 1772 plan. A single building on its west side was owned by Sir George Duckett (George Jackson) and let to William Taylor, maltster and barge owner. By 1791 the canal was sending large quantities of malt to London, and by the mid 19th century the terminus was surrounded by wharfage, coal and timber merchants, stone and slate merchants, and small industrial yards [10773, 10774] <2>. The basin was infilled in the late 20th century; see also [30730].

<1> Page, W (ed.), 1912, VCH Hertfordshire vol.3, - p295 (Bibliographic reference). SHT2329.

<2> Jones, Amy, & Jack, Sandra, 2005, Land adjacent to Jackson Square, Bishop's Stortford: building recording and assessment, RNO 1604 (Report). SHT545.

Sources and further reading

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