Sun 12 Apr 1846
Special Meeting. Mr Gregory, Parliamentary Agent, having stated that our petition was liable to technical difficulties, our solicitor presented another draft, which was approved and sealed.
Petition notes that South Wales Railway Co intend to cross canal and towing path at certain place in Saul. Plans will be cut off from accustomed channels of supply to Company. Company deem it not expedient that the railway should be altered or extended from Chepstow to Great Western Railway or Cheltenham branch at Standish in County of Gloucester. No public and local advantage to connect with Monmouth & Hereford Railway and with certain collieries and works in Forest of Dean and with town of Swansea, Llanelly Copper Works and Haverfordwest.
At a Special Meeting of the Committee of the Stroudwater Navigation held at the Committee Room at Wallbridge on Saturday April 4th 1846
Present: M^R Jn^o H Warman, Dan Watts, Will^m Fryer, G H A Beard, Jn^o Holbrow Chairman, Geo Wathen, Hen^y Wyatt.
A Letter was read from Capt Berkeley saying that he should present our Petition to the House of Commons on the 2nd Ins^t.
In consequence of M^r Gregory the parliamentry Agent having stated in a letter to our Solicitor that the said Petition does not pray to be heard against the Preamble to the Bill and is liable to some other technical objection, he had proposed another Draft which he had sent for our approval and upon the same having been read it was unanimously approved and ordered to be engrossed and the Seal of the Company affixed thereto.
A Letter from M^r Wood was read declining to attend this Meeting.
Copy of Petition
South Wales Railway (N^o 2) Petition against Bill for Committee
To the Honorable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament Assembled.
The Humble Petition of the Stroudwater Navigation Company under the Common Seal,
Sheweth,
That a Bill has been introduced and is now pending in your Honorable House for completing the line of the South Wales Railway and to authorise the construction of an extension and certain alterations of the said Railway and certain Branch Railways connected therewith.
That your Petitioners were incorporated by an Act of Parliament made and passed in the Sixteenth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the third and have since the passing of such Act and the construction of the works thereby authorised afforded considerable facilities for the conveyance of Coals, Timber and other produce from the Forest of Dean to the town of Stroud and its vicinity as well as to the neighbouring Counties of Berks, Oxford and Wilts.
That the South Wales Railway is intended to cross the Canal or Navigation and Towing path of your Petitioners at a certain place in the parish of Saul as delineated in the Parliamentary plan of the South Wales Railway.
That such Coals and Produce have been conveyed from the Forest of Dean to the Canal or Navigation of your Petitioners by means of two existing Railways called respectively the Severn and Wye and Forest of Dean Railways.
That by the said intended Bill it is proposed to empower the South Wales Railway Company to rent or purchase the said Forest of Dean Railway and also the said Severn and Wye Railway and to give such Company the absolute control and property in the two said last mentioned Railways respectively.
That your Petitioners apprehend that it will be the interest of the said South Wales Railway Company to diminish or put an end to the facilities at present afforded by the said Railways so proposed to be purchased or rented as aforesaid for the conveyance of Coals, Timber and other produce to the Canal or Navigation of your Petitioners and to divert such traffic into the line of the said South Wales Railway and your Petitioner believe that by merging the two lines of Railway aforesaid or vesting the same in the said South Wales Railway Company, your Petitioners will be cut off from the accustomed channels of supply and wholly unable to compete with the said South Wales Railway to the serious injury and loss of your Petitioners and or the Public.
That your Petitioners deny that it is expedient that some part of the South Wales Railway should be altered and the said Railway should be extended from Chepstow to the Great Western Railway or the Cheltenham Branch thereof at Standish in the County of Glocester or that it would be attended with public and local advantage and convenience if Branch Railways were made to connect the said South Wales Railway with the Monmouth and Hereford Railway and with certain Collieries and Works in the Forest of Dean and with the town of Swansea and with the Llanelly Copper Works and with the town of Haverfordwest as alleged in said Bills.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that they may be heard by themselves, their Counsel and Agents before the Committee of the said Bill against the Preamble of the same and against all and every the Clauses and provisions thereof which relate to or affect the property, rights of interest of your Petitioners.
And your Petitioners will ever pray, etc,
