Lancaster Canal Navigation Company

RAIL 844

1772-1898

Miscellaneous records of the Lancaster Canal Navigation Company.

LC.

Public Record(s)

English

327 files, rolls and volumes

Topics

Canals and river transport

Food and drink

All the records of the Lancaster Canal Navigation which were housed in BTHR when the Public Record Office took over custody in April 1972 have now been catalogued, and the list of these reflects both the former classified records under new references and the great mass of unclassified maps and plans which came from Lancaster in 1953 and have not been available for research purposes. The latter, together with a few classified maps and plans formerly in LC3, have been arranged by section under the heading Maps, Plans and Surveys, etc. They comprise c750 separate items and may be said to be representative of most of a canal company's activities.

Of particular interest is Section I which is divided into subjects many of which will be of significance to the Industrial Archaeologist. Another aid to students, in this case those researching the work of a particular engineer or surveyor, is the provision of an index for those maps and plans identified as being the work of such men.

The topographical arrangement of the Maps and Plans is basic. Particular areas or places appear under Section II, and plans covering long stretches of canal, in many cases series of consecutive plans, are shown in Section III and are identified by the first and last places mentioned. Particularly well represented in Section II is Preston, and to a lesser extent Lancaster; whilst in Section III, the early field surveys, and Thomas Addison's complete series of plans of the canal from Tewitfield to Bark Hill, are of considerable interest. Complementary to Section III plans are the Sections filed in Section VI.

Some few plans of other canals (Section IV), some large O.S. maps (Section V) and the engravings (Section VII) complete the collection, with the latter containing some fine specimens. The remaining records of the Navigation, previously classified, are now shown under their new references at the end of the series. A Summary of Contents of the whole collection is given at the front of the list.

June 1973 D. Barlow. History

Incorporated as "The Company of Proprietors of the Lancaster Canal Navigation" under Act of 11th June 1792 (32 Geo III, cap.101).

By the Lancaster Canal Transfer Act 29th July 1864 the North end of the Canal was leased to the London and North Western Railway Company and the South end to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company, each for 999 years.

Subject to the lease to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company the Lancaster Canal Company was sold to and vested in the London and North Western Railway Company as from 1st July 1885 and the Canal Company was dissolved as from 1st January 1886 by virtue of the London and North Western Railway Act 16th July 1885 (see Section 66)