Undated
Minutes of first committee on Stroudwater NavigationBill.
be of Public Utility
John Capel Esqr being examined, said, That the making of the intended Canal Navigaion will be of great public Utility particularly by the great Consumption of Coals for the use of the manufactorers, and that if this Navigation takes place it will be of great Use to the Poor as within his memory he believes half the woods in that neighbourhood have been destroyed, which has rendered fuel much dearer.
Trows coming from Bristol & other places up the River Sever, but that it will cost double the Sum the intended Navigation will, and be liable to the Impediments above mentioned.
That loaded Trows could not navigate the River but their Cargoes must be unloaded into three or four Lighters, to proceed up the same, and that if Power was given to make Cuts according to the Plan annexed to the Petition, and some Amendments were made to the former Act, he apprehends a Compleat Navigation might be made which would admit of Trows of seventy Tons Burthen to pass the Navigation, and that he projected the Plan of the Navigation with a view to that purpose.
Richard Owen Cambridge Esqr being examined, said, that the making the New Canal Navigation will be of great Benefit to the adjacent Roads. That w River Navigation must be prejudicial to the Mills, which he apprehends the present intended Navigation will not, and that the making of the Canal Navigation will be
