Somerset Coal Canal

Somerset Coal Canal
Disused locks near Combe Hay
Specifications
Length	10.6 miles (17.1 km) (Length of Paulton branch)
Maximum boat beam	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)
Locks	22
Status	Under Restoration
History
Former names	Somersetshire Coal Canal
Principal engineer	William Jessop William Smith
Construction began	1795
Date of first use	1798
Date completed	1805
Date closed	1898
Date restored	2012–present
Geography
Start point	Paulton / Timsbury
End point	Dundas Aqueduct
Connects to	Kennet and Avon Canal

The Somerset Coal Canal (originally known as the Somersetshire Coal Canal) was a narrow canal in England, built around 1800 starting in basins at Paulton and Timsbury to nearby Camerton, over two aqueducts at Dunkerton, through a tunnel at Combe Hay, then via Midford and Monkton Combe to Limpley Stoke where it joined the Kennet and Avon Canal. This link gave the Somerset coalfield, (which at its peak contained 80 collieries), access east toward London. The longest arm was 10.6 miles (17.1 km) long with 23 locks. From Midford an arm also ran via Writhlington to , with a tunnel at Wellow.

A feature of the canal was the variety of methods used at Combe Hay to overcome height differences between the upper and lower reaches, initially by the use of caisson locks and when this failed an inclined plane trackway and then finally a flight of 22 conventional locks.

The Radstock arm was never commercially successful and was replaced first with a tramway in 1815 and later incorporated into the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The Paulton route flourished for nearly 100 years and was very profitable, carrying very high tonnages of coal for many decades; this canal helped carry the fuel that powered the nearby city of Bath.

By the 1880s coal production declined as the various pits either ran out of coal or were flooded and subsequently closed. In 1896 the main pump at Dunkerton which maintained the canal water level failed. The resultant lowering in level meant that only small loads could be transported. A factor which reduced revenue from the canal still further. The declining income meant that the canal company could not afford to pay for a replacement pump.