Thorne St Margaret: Wellisford inclined plane
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Thorne St Margaret: Wellisford inclined plane by Martin Bodman as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Thorne St Margaret: Wellisford inclined plane
Image: © Martin Bodman Taken: 25 Sep 2005
Here the Grand Western Canal ascended 81 feet from the river Tone flood plain on a gradient of 1 in 5.5. Canal boats were raised on cradles, travelling on rails; a descending boat aiding the machinery lifting the ascending boat through gravity. The engineer James Green miscalculated the power needed to raise an 8-ton barge and its load when there was no descending traffic. He ceased to be the canal’s engineer in 1836 and was bankrupt in 1837. It was found necessary to install a 12-hp steam engine to work the incline which was eventually abandoned in 1867 when this section of the canal, from Taunton to Loudwells, near Greenham, closed
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Image Location
Latitude
50.986773
Longitude
-3.280751