Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/606

  'county of Stafford, and to communicate with a Canal intended to be made between the said River Trent and the River Mersey.' It incorporates a number of persons, therein named, by the style of "The Company of Proprietors of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Navigation," and empowers them to raise amongst themselves, for the purposes of the act, the sum of £70,000, in seven hundred shares of £100 each; and, if necessary, a further sum of £30,000. The act also authorizes them to collect the following

TONNAGE RATES.
Paving-stones, Gravel, Sand, and other Materials for repairing Roads, (Lime-stone excepted) and Manure for the Grounds of Persons who have had Land taken for the Canal, shall be exempted from Tonnage Rates, provided such Articles pass through a Lock only when the Water flows over the Weir.

The works of this undertaking were executed under the direction of the celebrated Mr. James Brindley, who built his first canal lock on this navigation, at Compton, near the town of Wolverhampton.

A second act of parliament was obtained by this company in 1790, entitled, 'An Act to enable the Company of Proprietors of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Navigation, to improve the Navigation of the River Severn, from Stourport, in the county of Worcester, to a Place called Diglis, near the city of Worcester;' which states that the company had completed their canal from the Trent and Mersey Navigation to the River Severn, but that the river was obstructed in various places by shoals, the removal of which would be a great benefit to the trade of the river and this canal, and that the company of proprietors of this navigation were willing to remove such shoals and obstructions at their own expense; the act, therefore, authorizes them to improve the navigation of the said river, and empowers them to borrow an additional sum of £12,000, on mortgage of their tolls and rates.

The trade on this canal is immense, as, from its junction with the Birmingham Canal at Autherly, a considerable portion of the hardware manufactures from the counties of Stafford and Warwick, and of coals from the Bilstone and other mines, are carried on it; great quantities of coal are also brought by the Stourbridge