Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/375



KENNET AND AVON CANAL.
34 Geo. III. C. 90, R. A. 17th Apr. 1794.

36 Geo. III. C. 44, R. A. 24th Mar. 1796.

38 Geo. III. C. 18. R. A. 7th May, 1798.

41 Geo. III. C. 23, R. A. 21st May, 1801.

45 Geo. III. C. 70, R. A. 27th June, 1805.

49 Geo. III. C. 64, R. A. 3rd, June, 1809.

53 Geo. III. C. 119. R. A. 3rd June, 1813.

THE truly useful and highly important work which we have now to describe, had its first commencement in an act which received the royal assent on the 17th April, 1794, and is entitled, An Act for making a navigable Canal from the River Kennet, at or near the town of Newbury, in the county of Berkshire, to the River Avon, at or near the city of Bath; and also certain navigable Cuts therein described. By this act the proprietors are incorporated under the title of "The Company of Proprietors of the Kennet and Avon Canal Navigation," and have the usual powers granted on such occasions. In consequence of an agreement with the proprietors of the Wilts and Berks Canal, conformably to a clause in this act, the line first laid down was proposed to be altered, and the sanction of parliament to this alteration was obtained in the year 1796, in an act under the title of An Act to vary and alter the Line of the Canal authorized to be made by an Act passed in the Thirty-fourth of his present Majesty, entitled, An Act for making a navigable Canal from the River Kennet, at or near the town of Newbury, in the county of Berkshire, to the River Avon, at or near the city of Bath, and also certain navigable Cuts therein described, and to amend the said Act, and also to make a certain navigable Cut therein described.

By the first act the company were authorized to raise £420,000, in three thousand five hundred shares of £120 each, part of which might be divided into half shares of £60 each, two of these to have one vote; and should the above sum prove insufficient, they were empowered to raise £150,000 in addition. By the second act no further sums of money were required to be raised. In the year 1798 the company found it necessary to make further alterations in the line of canal; and they, in consequence, obtained the requisite authority by a third act, entitled, An Act to vary the Line of the Kennet and Avon Canal, authorized to be made by Two Acts passed in the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-sixth of his present Majesty, and also to extend the Powers of, and to amend the said Act.