Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/618

 this concern, the proprietors of the Dudley Canal are required by the 33rd George III. to make up the annual dividend on the shares in this canal to £12 each, provided not more than £3 is required for that purpose. The width of this canal is 28 feet and the depth 5 feet, and there is a reservoir of twelve acres on Pensnet Chase. From Stewponey, where this canal unites with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, for about the distance of three-eighths of a mile, there is a rise of 43 feet 3 inches, by four locks; from thence to the Stourbridge Branch, it is level, (and the Stourbridge Branch is also level); thence to the Lays, a distance of one mile and one-eighth, there is a rise of 148 feet, by sixteen locks; and thence to the Dudley Canal, one mile and a half, is level.

This canal is of very great benefit to the town of Stourbridge, and to parts of the counties of Worcester, Gloucester, Hereford and Warwick; the principal articles carried on it are coal, iron-stone, glass-house pot clay, glass, nails and other iron goods and manufactures.

STOUR AND SALWERP RIVERS.
14 Charles II. Cap. 13, Royal Assent 19th May, 1662.

THE act of parliament respecting these rivers is entitled, 'An Act for the making navigable of the Rivers of Stower and Salwerp, and the Rivulets and Brooks running into the same, in the counties of Worcester and Stafford.' Under the authority of this act, these rivers were made navigable from the River Severn, at Stourport, to the town of Stourbridge, by means of sluices, weirs and other works; but a sudden and violent flood which soon after occurred destroyed all the works. The Stafford and Worcester and the Stourbridge Canals have since supplied, more effectually, the place of this river navigation.