Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/712

 £7,900, which sums have been also expended in carrying into execution time works authorized by the 52nd George III. but the navigation was yet imperfect; the proprietors were by the last recited act, authorized to raise a further sum of £50,000 on mortgage of the navigation, and a further sum of £20,000, if necessary.

The chief advantages derived from this navigation, are the facilities it affords of communicating with the rich agricultural district of the interior of the county of Lincoln, further augmented by the manner in which the Sleaford and Horncastle Navigation diverges from it. By the local position of this river and its connexion with the Trent, and the numerous canals which emanate from it by means of the Fossdike, an inland communication is established with all parts of the kingdom, and, of consequence, an additional degree of importance will necessarily attach to it.

WORCESTER AND BIRMINGHAM CANAL.
31 Geo. III. C. 59, R. A. 10th June, 1791.

38 Geo. III. C. 31, R. A. 26th May, 1798.

44 Geo. III. C. 35, R. A. 23rd Mar. 1804.

48 Geo. III. C. 49, R. A. 27th May, 1808.

55 Geo. III. C. 66, R. A. 7th June, 1815.

THIS canal commences at the junction of the Birmingham and Birmingham and Fazeley Canals, at Farmer's Bridge, at the upper end of the town of Birmingham, and thence runs in a south-westerly direction to its junction with the Dudley Canal, at Selly Oak; thence it takes a south-easterly course to King's Norton, where the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal unites with it; and thence by a course nearly south-west the whole distance, and passing by West Heath, Oswald, Alvechurch, Tardebig, Stoke Prior, Hewell Park, Hadzor, Hanbury Park, Oddingley and Iplip Hall, and a short distance to the eastward of the towns of Droitwich and Bromsgrove, it joins the River Severn at Diglis, a little below Worcester.

It was made under the sanction of an act of parliament passed in 1791, and entitled, 'An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal from, or from near to, the town of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, to communicate with the River Severn, near to the city of Worcester,' which incorporates a number of