Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/659

 part of the River Thames, and to the construction of other canals in the neighbourhood, more especially the Kennet and Avon, which affords a much shorter route from Bristol to London.

THANET CANAL.
13 George III. Cap. 47, Royal Assent 10th May, 1773.

THIS canal is the property of the Earl of Thanet, at whose expense it was constructed. It runs from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, in a direction nearly north, and about one-third of a mile in length, to a little above Skipton Castle.

The act is entitled, 'An Act to enable the Right Honourable Sackville, Earl of Thanet, to make a navigable Cut or Canal from a Place called the Spring, lying near Skipton Castle, in the county of York, to join and to communicate with the navigable Canal from Leeds to Liverpool, in a Close called Hebble End Close, in the township of Skipton, in the said county of York.'  The whole line through which the canal passes is Lord Thanet's property, with the exception of one close which belongs to the Free Grammar School at Skipton.

Its object is the conveyance of limestone from the quarries about a mile above the castle, to which, railways are laid, which limestone is used at the foundries in the neighbourhood of Bradford, and for making and repairing both turnpike and other roads to a considerable extent beyond Leeds and Wakefield; besides which, it is burnt into lime for agricultural and building purposes.

TONE RIVER OR TONE AND PARRETT NAVIGATION.
10 &amp; 11 William III. Cap. 8, Royal Assent 24th March, 1699.

6 Anne, Cap. 9, Royal Assent 11th March, 1707.

44 George III. Cap. 83, Royal Assent 14th July, 1804.

THIS navigation, which is about twenty-seven miles in length, commences in the Grand Western Canal at Taunton, and runs in a direction nearly north, by a bending course, passing Bridgewater,