Plans, diagrams and other memoranda concerning the Royal Military Canal between Hythe...

AMS/5506/1

Plans, diagrams and other memoranda concerning the Royal Military Canal between Hythe and Winchelsea

1832-1833

label 'bound by R King, Hythe' [1832]

1 sketch-plan and notes on a new cut new Ruckinge in Kent [for which see folio 27]; 31 Oct 1831

2 not used

3 table of dates on which the front and back drains were last cleared out, measured in rods; Hythe, 7 Jun 1831, continued to Oct 1837

4 list of portions of the front and back drains cleared or being cleared, with reference to the maps, naming contractor, length and cost; Canal Office, Hythe, 4 Oct 1834, continued to Oct 1837

5-6 plan 13 - Cliff End to Winchelsea, parcels 262-255; shows Martello Towers 37-38

6v-7 commentary, parcels 256-262, annotated 5 Apr 1834

7v-8 plan 12 - Winchelsea to the Rye parish boundary, parcels 260-247; shows gates at Winchelsea, bleaching grounds, Royal Staff Corps Barracks, Read's Batteries and Sheep Houses

8v commentary, military road, parcels 247-255 [see folio 11]

9 plan and elevation of a proposed brick barrel-drain to replace the present wooden structure; 24 Jun 1840

10 measurements of the Military Road at Winchelsea Station; c1840

11 commentary, towing path, parcels 250-255 [see folio 8v]; annotated 17 Feb 1845

11v-12 plan 11 - Rye to Playden, parcels 246-242; shows Winchelsea [Camber] Castle, Tower 30, Landgate at Rye, the Globe Inn and The Briars, Playden

12v commentary, military road, parcels 243-245; annotated Jan 1834

13v-14 plan 10 - Playden to Iden, parcels 241-227; shows toll-house, Star Inn, Scots Float Sluice, Royal Military Lock and barracks

14v commentary, parcels 227-241

15 note of lengths of hedges on the Military Road; 17 Jul 1873

16 plan of the Royal Military Lock, 20 feet : 1 inch; 27 May 1834

17 memorandum of distances between Appledore and Rye, noting the method of construction of the road; [1834]

18v-19 plan 9 - Iden to Stone, parcels 226-204; shows Knock House and Station House at Stone

19v commentary, parcels 204-227

20v-21 plan 8 - Ebony to Appledore, parcels 203-175; shows Court Lodge Appledore, Station House

21v commentary, parcels 178-199 [see folio 23]

22 letter from A Swan, Hythe, to Captain White, Hythe; includes list of scots on Canal property taken from the Kentish Gazette; 16 Jun 1837

23 commentary, towing path parcels 193-198 [see folio 21v]

23v-24 plan 7 - Kennardington to Warehorne, parcels 175-138; shows Station House and Warehorne Church; inset shows two sections of Warehorne Syphon Culvert

24v commentary, parcels 137-165

25 levels taken by Captain Jackson at Bilsington, Ruckinge, Hamstreet and Warehorne; 26 Oct 1829

26v-27 plan 6 - Hamstreet to Ruckinge, parcels 137-115; shows two Station Houses and Ruckinge Church

27v commentary, parcels 115-137

28v-29 plan 5 - Ruckinge to Bonnington, parcels 115-92; shows windmill, two Station Houses, Bilsington and Bonnington Churches and Sir Edward Knatchbull's farm; inset shows two sections of a culvert

29v commentary, parcels 103-115 [see folio 31]

30 extract, by Alexander Swan, from the award of the arbitrators and umpires, concerning the power of the Commissioners to take land near bridges, 15 Jun 1808; c1835

31 commentary [on parcels 103-105 - see folio 29v]

31v-32 plan 4 - Bonnington to Eldergate, parcels 93-76; shows Jiggers Green, Station House, Marwood Farm and Brance Farm; inset shows a culvert

32v commentary, parcels 76-88

33 list, in pencil, of the proprietors on the North side of .

33v-34 plan 3 - Eldergate to West Hythe, parcels 75-51; shows two Station Houses [one deleted], ruins of Studfall Castle, Lympne Castle and Church, houses and a ruined building in West Hythe; insets showing two culverts

34v commentary, parcels 55-75

35v-36 plan 2 - West Hythe to Beach Street, Hythe, parcels 51-21; shows brick kiln, lime kilns, wharf, Royal Staff Corps premises, four windmills, Fort Sutherland; insets showing two culverts

36v commentary, parcels 24-50

37 detailed plan of the Director's Office at Hythe, 1830; annotated with details of the opening of a drain, Jan 1837, the sale of two cottages to Mr Garrett, 17 Oct 1839 and a report on his application for altered entrances, 4 Mar 1840

38 part of a plan of ground on the south side of the canal occupied as a shrubbery by Mr Watts since Feb 1822; annotated with a note that part of the Town Ditch was covered over in Apr 1840

39 notes of the purchase by the Commissioners of portions of the Director's Office land shown on folio 37 above, 1808-1810, and of counsel's opinion concerning repairs and fences, 26 Aug 1817

39v-40 plan 1 - Hythe to Shorncliff Barracks, parcels 21-1; shows Hythe Church, Towers 1-12, Twiss Fort, Ordnance Ground, Sluice Houses, Shorncliff Barracks with buildings identified, annotated with a note of their sale on 21 Aug 1838; inset showing a culvert

40v commentary, parcels 1-22

41 detailed plan of the canal works and enclosures at Shorncliff Sluice, bounded on the South by beach belonging to the Earl of Radnor as lord of the manor; 11 Jun 1832

42 plan [of the sea trunk at Shorncliff - see folio 47 below], 8 feet : 1 inch; [1832]

43 plan of the Ordnance Barracks, veterinary stables, Mr Jeffery's cottage and Tear Coat Quarry North of the footway by Buggs Lane from Cheriton to Sandgate; RSK, Canal Office, Hythe, 23 May 1837

44v-45 Index Map showing a key to the areas covered by plans 1-13; table of acreages of the canal property, stated by Mr [Alexander] Swan to the director, 24 Jul 1832; original section of the canal, 15 feet : 1 inch, copied from a plan drawn by General [John] Brown in 1806

46 'sketch showing the state of the mouth of the sea trunk at Shorncliff Sluice on the 22nd January 1832'

47 'Plan of the great oak trunk through the beach near Shorncliff'; 18 Sep 1806

48 Brief narrative of the history of the Royal Military Canal, headed by a copy of the original section at 30 feet : 1 inch. The narrative, written in 1832, opens with the beginning of the project in Nov 1804, the failure of the contractors in Jun 1805, its construction by soldiers and civilians (with details of work and wages), the construction of culverts, planting of elm trees (procured from Russell and Wilmot of Lewisham), the opening ceremony in Aug 1806, the construction and arming of batteries at Pett Level 'long before the canal was made or thought of', great storms of Nov 1808 and Jan 1809 and the consequent construction of a sea embankment, construction of the Staff Corps Barracks in 1808, destruction by fire of the regimental stores on Hythe Beach, 9 Jan 1809, purchase of trees and shrubs from Mt Cutbush near Ashford, from London and Leith, 1817-1819. the text was augmented with a note of the measures adopted to deal with the effects of a hurricane which 'should never be performed except under the eye of an officer', 26 Feb 1835

endorsed: memorandum of the services and charged made by passage-boats on the canal, 1810-1833; A[lexander] Swan, 3 Jun 1833

<p>For papers and correspondence on the scotting of land taken for the canal, 1809-1810, see DAP box 13/4; for a draft agreement between the Commissioners of the Upper Level and the Canal Commissioners for clearing the New Knock Channel, 15 Oct 1831, see DAP box 22/2; for an account of tonnages carried through the Royal Military Canal lock, Jun 1823 - May 1827, see DAP box 350/51-54.</p>

AMS5506/1

English

The survey, which seems to be a duplicate of TNA PRO MPH 1/664, begins at Shorncliff Barracks east of Hythe in Kent and travels westward to Cliff End in Fairlight. It consists of thirteen plans which are now presented, perhaps as the result of a re-binding, in descending order, with the result that the book opens at the western end of the canal in Sussex. The Canal Office lay at Hythe, and presumably the surveyors began their task there. The name Alexander Swan occurs at frequent intervals in the volume, and it seems likely that the survey was carried out under his superintendence.

Each plan, surveyed at 8 chains (528 feet) to an inch, depicts the canal itself, the front and back drains, and a corridor of land of varying width on either side, on which are shown all watercourses and buildings, many of which are identified. The fields through which the canal passes are numbered from 1 at Shorncliff to 262 at Cliff End Fairlight, and tables list the original proprietors (presumably when the land was initially acquired in 1804), the new proprietors (at the date of the survey) and the acreages. The courses taken by the field-boundaries (mostly ditches) before the construction of the canal are shown by dotted red lines. Each plan is followed by a page of comments, keyed to the field-numbers, with entries concerning the military road on the left-hand opening and those concerning the towing-path on the right.

The plans have been heavily annotated with developments subsequent to the survey - 'Station House at Stone burnt down 22 July 1843' on folio 19 is an example - and there is every sign of the volume having served as a working document until at least the 1870s. The book also contains references to a numbered series of Canal Papers, a book marked 'No 1 Lands H' and Canal letterbook 2.

Into the survey had been inserted several loose papers and plans, all of which were bound in at the places at which they were found when the volume was rebound by East Sussex Record Office, at which point the whole was foliated 1-48. It is consequently difficult to use the book as originally intended as a result of the interruptions caused by the formerly loose insertions.

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