Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/190

168 they came by will or act in law; instead of which, it enacts that any person may have any number of shares not exceeding thirty. The line of canal from Fazeley to Fradley being completed, and notice given to the Coventry Canal Company, in January, 1787, they agreed to purchase the half-part above-mentioned, and it was accordingly conveyed to them in October, 1787. The whole line of canal was completed and opened in July, 1790. The length of this canal, from Fradley Heath to Coventry, was thirty-seven miles and three-quarters, including the portion of the original line now belonging to the Birmingham Canal Company. The first eleven miles, to Fazeley, is level; there is then a rise, to Glascote, near Tamworth, of 14½ feet, by two locks; thence, to Grendon, six miles and a half, is level; from Grendon to Atherstone, a distance of two miles and a half, there is a rise of 81½ feet; from which place, to its termination at Coventry, it is level. At Marston Bridge, near Bedworth, the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal joins it, and at Longford, the Oxford Canal communicates with it. Between Nuneaton and the junction with the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal, there is a short branch of three-quarters of a mile in length, to some collieries; and at Griff, near Marston Bridge, there is another branch. It is here worthy of remark, that these three canals conjointly preserve the longest canal level in England, being upwards of seventy miles, exclusive of branches.

TONNAGE RATES.
By an Act of the 9th George III. for making the Oxford Canal, it is stipulated that the Coventry Canal Proprietors shall receive all the Rates, arising from Coal, on the Oxford Canal, on the Two Miles nearest the Coventry Canal; and, that the Oxford Canal Company shall have all the Rates, arising from all Articles except Coal, which shall be navigated upon any Part or Parts of the Oxford Canal, and afterwards upon the Coventry Canal, within Three Miles and a Half from the Junction of the Two Canals towards Coventry; and by the Act of 34th George III, for making the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal, the Coventry Canal Company are authorized to collect Five-pence per Ton upon all Coal, Goods, and Merchandize whatsoever, which shall be navigated upon the Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and afterwards upon the Coventry, Oxford, or Grand Junction Canals, or upon any of the above-mentioned Canals, and afterwards upon the Ashby Canal.

EXEMPTION.
An Exemption to this Toll is extended to Corn or Grain; Sheep or other Cattle; Iron, Stone, Wrought Iron, got or made upon the Banks of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal; Dung, Ashes, and Marl, for Manure; and Gravel, Sand, and Stone, for the repair of Roads.

The last act relating to the Coventry Canal Navigation, received the royal assent on the 14th of June, 1819, and is entitled,