good morning everybody and welcome to another video welcome to another canal
video, a windy canal video.... you join us right here which is next
to be start of the Somerset Coal Canal which had some very unique
engineering features which we shall come to shortly when we get to Coombe Hay but
for the meantime you join us on the western end of the Somerset coal Canal
Timsbury Basin.
so just stepped outside of basin area because we found this, love when we find signs
tend to be based in history yes said the canal here we are at the start and it was
to serve the Somerset coal field of the Cam Valley and all of the mines
and the colleries that were popping up or had already popped up but they were
previously using the roads around here which were in a complete state by
accounts so as everybody in the country was doing or trying to do at building
canals and here was a perfect place to start but they had a hill to deal with
at Combe Hay they had a whole valley of Hill to deal
with at Combe Hay. Pictures taken, we will plagiarise this sign throughout the
day. I wonder if that's a spoil from the basin's
okay so hopefully you can hear us over the wind but what you're looking at now
is an aqueduct and the curvature of the canal so the canal came from that direction
they're around here down and under here which is where we are now it is a lay-by
and basically went under a tunnel okay so we're just walking a little bit
further north just to see if we can see the other side of the aqueduct yeah I
think the we can Rebecca.
that's probably some farm access I would have said but look at that in survives
two hundred and twenty years old over on getting farm access Wow okay so
we are now by the locks come hey locks on the Somerset call canal and we can
now take a look at time to give a little bit history of the canal what it's for
Somerset.... Wow that's a great shot Rebecca look people slightly overexposed
I'm hoping outgoing little bit there we go straight up the flight locks there
sorry it slightly distracted by a great little shot that we saw there that
the locks and so Somerset Coal Canal built and around 1800 and essentially it was
built to overcome the problem of transporting Coal on the roads and it
was time for the Somerset to join in to exploit the Somerset coal field which
they certainly did at the time along this section up here there was 80
colleries, obviously they weren't over here exactly the same
time but 80 colleries producing a lot of coal here and canal at the time was the
of Technology the peak of where they were with their transportation
so if you've been for our town for a while you know that a lot of our
research is into old railways and disused railway to choose landscapes
abandoned railways one of the things that we always pick up on is the plight
of the person that built the line and the health and safety especially at the
railways but when we look at some of the old canals we realized that it was an
even crazier time as some of the schemes they came up with were beyond
comprehension certainly in our in our lives but perhaps even for the railway
men of the day too
so the Somerset coal Canal and in particularly this section the Combe Hay
area, the hill, trying to get up and down the hill really highlights that for us
they had three different ways they tried until they eventually settled on the
more traditional lock gate this really goes to underline the point of what I'm
saying about the health and safety aspect where there was less than zero
consideration and that is even for the passengers and the people that worked
and the barges themselves not just the navvies and the people that built the
canals but before we come to that this little part of the canal is quite an
important bit because right immediately behind us almost exactly behind the
camera there the canal came up the hill here and here is a turning point right
on this little peak before we're almost back on itself so the basin we're
looking at here would have had boats coming in it
turning right round almost 360 degrees but not quite maybe three forty three
thirty and then back on continue up the hill of the locks itself towards Caisson
house
so method number one to try and traverse this hill in their canal boats was they
Patented Caisson, now a caisson in my experience with canals is where
they put a boat almost in another boat and then put up an inclined plane that's
not the case they try to do almost a Caisson tunnel so the barge itself they
were placed in almost like a box the box would be watertight in theory and they
were then lower the Box down or up obviously was ready go and to try
and traverse an inclined Hill that's simple and they thought this was going
to be a such a great idea but they patented the idea and there's pictures
all over the place where you can see this all still right now next another
lock
that didn't work I think the key point here was the word watertight and drop
and a number of Caissons I think certainly on their small-scale version they
actually dropped a couple of boats and it was deemed too unsafe now can you
imagine getting your part and going into a box both ends being completely sealed
either end and then you're lowered down a shaft or in your boat in your box and
then you go through a tunnel and potentially you go into another caisson
which is lockable and then you go down again I can't imagine anything more
terrifying than that you can't even get a lift okay I'm not really good with
lifts so in a box in a boat on some water which was dropped I can't imagine
what that's like that is exactly what I didn't thats why attempt number one to
traverse this hill failed so just over the way there in the distance is Caisson
house name so for obvious reasons and we think almost in their driveway as
the site where the first tunnel and the first Caisson into the ground and
then came across so it probably still exists to this day but getting to it
obviously would be impossible it's probably sealed and of course this on
private land but that is a credibly important piece of history pretty much
in their driveway
random-looking pit in the ground there that reminds me
very much of some of the am shafts that we saw on The Thames and Severn.
that looks like a shaft.
That rounded area just there.
I wonder if we are in the complete wrong area
this is really exciting because we are on this pathway now level
with the house just off in the distance the reason why that's important is
because this here although along here is this clearly purpose-built waterway
clearly that is part of the old canal now this comes all the way along the
ridge of this hill now if we go this way it just stops I wonder this is an
attempt for them to get the canal boats along here and this is actually where
maybe the canal that the Caisson went down it stops there the canal just stops there
we level again we're level with caisson house remember that that's really
important because we assumed that the Caisson was lowered at Caisson House...
convinced I reckon one of the attempts came up to here because all of this is
dug out clearly purpose-built and it stops just through the heads there no
you've got nothing but my sheer drop down to whether the loss airlocks are
and you've got nothing that way I puff from a sheer drop to and there is that
whole loss or just through the heads there and I wonder if that was some kind
of shaft that they used to build maybe the second caisson or where they expect
it to come out just down there okay so let's try and shed it a little bit a
light and put into perspective what we've just been talking about because I
appreciate it may not been very easy to visualize so here is the brilliant rail
map online who also does canals and you can see the area that Rebecca and I
just walked up which is following the mouse up here up to the hairpin and we
walked back up what is here which is a very steep gradient I'll flick over the
Google Maps because they did a brilliant 3d version of this and if I just move
that around there you can see here's a canal and there is the hairpin we've
walked up the broader world pathway which is up to the top of this hill so
that there is quite a steep hill now on our way here we found in this woods just
here what we thought was look like a shaft of some kind we then walked along
here which was the the pathway and we found obviously what we thought and
unexpectedly is another part of the canal so it turns out that there was an
engine house in this woods here this wood is called engine
house wood and it turns out this was the the pumping station for the canal and
they had a canel built presumably to bring loads of coal up to the pumping house
and yes a bride with coal so Rebecca and I walked along this section here and we
had wondered because we didn't know there was a pumping house here we'd
wondered if this was part of the original casts on attempt to get down
the hill that would make a lot of sense to us now it's pointed out at this stage
that there is a lot of dispute about where these original enclosed Caissons
were built here is caisson house I look over to the map so you can see
again that's here so this section here on row map on line and flicking back to
there that's a Caisson the general consensus is the caisson was
built here so pretty much in their driveway and it went down towards this
flagpole here under the ground and across and came out we think of
roundabouts here. Rebecca and I wondered for a number of different reasons if
actually because there was talk of more than one attempt to do this if this over
here was potentially another attempt now we've seen pumping houses before that
Kennet and AvonCrofton and to power the pumping house here you would only
need one canal boat full of coal for every two weeks so a company that's
strapped for cash to build this canal would they really build a cow now
although along here 400 yards let's say just to supply that with coal once every
two weeks craft and certainly I think it was the the guards responsibility to
literally wheel borrow the coal we needed up to the up to the pumping house so
there's a big question mark there as to why they would build a canal here but if
i zoom around and here we'll talk about a couple of other quick things first of
all so we've already talked about the locks and how the locks were the third
thing that they built to get down this big hill the first thing we already know
because again we talked about is the internal crazy caisson locks that we
think either went down here underground or potentially over there that was
possibly the first attempt so the second attempt when they realize the caissons
weren't working they were dangerous they had folks they dropped them inside their
own sort of cistern or piston when they realized it wasn't working they built an
incline so similar to what we throw in in the chard videos the incline went
from here and you can see the line going all the way down there and again if I
flicks a realm up on line that line there indicates exactly where that went
so it's circumnavigated the need for the underground caisson again they didn't
like that possibly because it was dangerous so they then built after which
they built the locks all the way down here and I'll show you how many locks
that were if I click on that you'll see every single those green dots all the
way around here is a lock so that was the the end goal was to build all of
these locks around here and after they had already built the incline after
they'd built the caissons so freed if an attempt to scale this hill the first of
which was possibly the craziest we've ever seen okay so we're done with this
section here sorry to waffle on we will now head on over to the last bit that
canal will explore the day which was back towards Midford
right so I think we're walking but we're mid-foot and we think we're walking back
along the canal now it's quite as the full of this pair as well and we're
actually obviously on the toe part itself now there's the canal and
presumably the whole rock face there was carved out when they built the canal
because it's all obviously very I say obvious but I'm gonna say yes and then
maybe they use the earth to build the towpath on this southern side
I think what you're looking at there just across the way is a restored
aqueduct reading from my notes so that was a little offshoot from the canal
which weren't perpendicular to it I
think that's a whole romance of just strolling along in a in a canal Bosch as
yours drop floating on reading it in a being pulled along by a horse or
whatever you kind of just assume that well what a beautiful lifestyle to have
that as a job two day trip along the canal and then you keep then you think
about the tunnels and the hardship so the navvies and the holotype the people
that built it and you know pull it wasn't quite as romantic as we're making
out to be is it really no hey we can enjoy the infrastructure now no mile
marker maybe over there so from the bank or the towpath of a Somerset coal canal
which will bid you farewell there's a lot to explore on this on a sec okay we
probably haven't scratched the surface we've uncovered a couple of little quirk
lot of things we need to do more research what happened we go through a
gate go for gate I suspect for some time to come now we shall be going for gates
without using our hands instead using our let's even silence that up use your
elbows which is great knees yeah right so from here we are this is the end of
our Somerset cold canal joint we hope you've enjoyed it it's been a rather
it's been every season day today it's been a cold warm hot windy wet it hasn't
snowed yet who knows but it looks quite spectacular
now so anyway we round off thanks for watching hope you enjoyed this little
video about the Somerset coal canal and we're not going to go much further on
now we're gonna walk a little bit further and see what we can find but
probably as far as Midford house you'd imagine is as far as it will need to get
because I think then he goes into a real canal done the spot and Dundas but we
shall bid you farewell face washing and we'll see you next week