Salisbury and Southampton Canal

Salisbury and Southampton Canal
The presence of the canal bed, which ran left to right, caused problems during the construction of Clover Nook, seven blocks of flats built on Old Redbridge Road. The nearest block is numbers 81 to 96.
Specifications
Maximum boat length	60 ft 0 in (18.29 m)
Maximum boat beam	8 ft 0 in (2.44 m)
Locks	16 or 17
Status	Mainly destroyed
History
Original owner	Proprietors of the Salisbury and Southampton Canal
Principal engineer	John Rennie
Date of act	1795
Date of first use	1802
Date closed	1808
Geography
Start point	Salisbury
End point	Southampton
Connects to	Andover Canal, River Test, River Itchen

The Salisbury and Southampton Canal was intended to be a 13-mile long canal in southern England from Redbridge, now a western suburb of Southampton at the head of Southampton Water, to Salisbury connecting with the Andover Canal at a junction near Mottisfont. Another section, through Southampton, was to connect via a tunnel to the River Itchen.

The idea of a canal from Salisbury to Redbridge was announced in 1768, after the canal engineer James Brindley had made a survey of a possible route. Two years later, Robert Whitworth was working on plans for a canal from Andover to Redbridge, and the Salisbury Committee wanted Brindley to survey an amended route that would join Whitworth's Canal at Kimbridge. Brindley was too busy and so sent one of his assistants, but the scheme foundered in 1772 when the Andover bill was not presented to Parliament.

The route was surveyed in 1793 and authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1795. The proprietors appointed Joseph Hill as the surveyor, who estimated that the project would cost around £50,000. Although the canal had initially attracted strong support from merchants in Bristol, who saw it as part of a link between Bristol and Southampton, many of the shareholders did not respond to the calls for money, and so the company was always short of working capital. The job of constructing the tunnel in Southampton was given to Thomas Jenkins, but the work did not go well, and John Rennie was asked to inspect it. His report highlighted serious deficiencies with the work.

Hill resigned from the project shortly afterwards. A new Act of Parliament was obtained in 1800, which authorised the raising of additional capital, but although the company found it difficult to obtain extra shareholders, they appointed George Jones as the resident engineer, and some progress was made. By January 1803, the canal was in use from the west end of the tunnel to Redbridge, where it joined the Andover Canal, and from Kimbridge, further north on the Andover Canal, to West Grimstead, 4 miles (6.4 km) to the east of Salisbury. The company struggled to find the money to continue construction, and sheriffs seized parts of the canal after Jones sued the company for failing to pay his salary and won the court action.