Tue 7 Apr 1789
Meeting at Bull Inn Fairford.
Doubts have arisen respecting Bonds to be issued for the payment of part of the interest due upon several calls then paid by the several proprietors after the rate of £10 per share. Assignments or mortgages were inadvertently delivered.
Ordered that the several assignments or mortgages amounting to Twelve Thousand, Seven Hundred pounds be forthwith called in and paid to the treasurer before the 24th June next and that bonds be issued in lieu.
The clerk to the company should reside in the counties of Gloucestershire or Wiltshire as close to the line of the canal as possible.
The money actually borrowed by this company upon the credit of assignments or mortgages of the toll rates and duties amounts only to thirty-one thousand, two hundred & sixty nine pounds.
The committee is empowered to borrow the further sum of twenty-eight thousand, seven hundred & thirty pounds making the sum of sixty thousand pounds for making and completing and maintaining the canal.
The engraved form of assignments and mortgages should be printed on parchment and have the words Thames and Severn Canal Navigation.
No assignments or mortgages be issued for more than £500 or less than £50.
The select committee to operate trade to be led by James Perry and they must retain monies from tonnage to pay for their expenses in promoting trade along the canal for the advantage of the proprietors at large and the public in general.
(A series of bye-laws for the conducting of trade.) Ordered that all boats passing the five locks below the summit pond at Daneway Bridge shall observe the following order. Details given. It being the intent and meaning of this order to make one lock full of water serve the passing of two boats, one ascending and one descending under the penalty of three pounds.
The same regulation to be observed in passing the lower locks at Siddington, the watchman noticing the time for boats arriving at Siddington from the tunnel, to begin passing such boats.
Boats passing through the tunnel must notice and comply with the following orders viz;
The first boat lying below Daneway Bridge shall begin to move at five o’clock every morning, and the boats going down the said five locks moving downward in their turn, it being intended for the ascending boats to enter Sapperton Tunnel by six o’clock and clear the Hailey Wood end of the tunnel by nine o’clock of the same day.
The boats passing from the Hailey Wood end of the Tunnel do begin to pass through the Tunnel at nine o’clock in the morning so as to clear the Sapperton end of the Tunnel by twelve o’clock each morning
That the same order as above be observed for passing boats through the Tunnel from the Sapperton end of the Tunnel between the hours of twelve and four o’clock in the afternoon. That the same order as above be observed for passing boats through the Tunnel from the Hailey Wood end of the said tunnel between the hours of four and seven in the afternoon, under the penalty of five pounds for disobedience of any of the four foregoing orders.
That the Navigation be open for boats passing upon it between April 10th and September 10th from five o’clock in the morning to nine o’clock in the evening and in the other part of the year from six o’clock in the morning to seven o’clock in the evening (this order must be observed in the open canal only and not to alter the orders for passing the Tunnel or the locks below Daneway) under the order for non attendance of forty shillings.
That the master of every boat employed by this Company or by the select committee of this Company whose boats pass in the name of James Perry & Co. are hereby directed and required to deliver to the wharfinger or wharfingers of this Company where they shall discharge their cargo or any part thereof, a true manifest of what they shall deliver, as also an account of any good or parts of goods they shall collect in the course of their voyage through the canal. And we the said Company do absolutely forbid every pilferage or embezzlement or sale whatsoever of any part or parcels of the said cargoes committed to their care or their being disobedient to the written order or direction of a member of our committee or wharfinger, the true intent of meaning of this Company being ample wages to their servants and no other perquisites whatever, under the penalty of four pounds.
That no shaft or pole shod with iron be used in the course of this canal on entry but all and every such implements on entry into this navigation we order left under the first wharfingers care on the canal until the return of the vessel, under the penalty of forty shillings.
That no shaft or pole be used to push boats forward or move any boat between Bidmeads Mill and Cirencester and between Siddington upper and lower locks or any other part of the canal which is lined with clay in the bottom in order to preserve the bottom lining of the canal from being disturbed and losing water under the penalty of three pounds.
That the upper gates of the locks be always kept shut when the chamber of the lock is full of water under the penalty of forty shillings.
That no water be flushed through the lashers of any lock or otherwise be permitted to run waste by any person or persons whatsoever without leave in writing from a member of the committee, under the penalty of forty shillings.
That hand bills be renewed to prevent depredations on the property of the company and injury to their works, declaring if they continue this Company will be obliged to forbid their towing path being made use of but for the use of the canal.
That the wharfingers on this navigation do attend personally the weighing of the coal and merchandize and see the delivery thereof and also every watchman or headman employed as check over other men shall duly attend and labour with them, under the penalty of forty shillings in any such cases.
That watchmen shall keep the canal, banks, towing path and fences etc. in perfect repair in their respective districts, that they shall see to the regular using of this navigation by boatmen, and due observance of the Company’s byelaws and orders and report to our Committee every person or persons who shall neglect to obey the byelaws and orders of this Company or their committee or shall commit any depredations upon the Companies property, or do the said Company any injury or commit any defraud whatsoever. In cases where such watchmen shall want assistance, it shall be granted by the clerk of our works or some proprietor who is a member of the Committee of Proprietors, but not otherwise under the penalty of forty shillings.
Every person made Master of a Boat shall attend his respective boat constantly during the hours or time she is in employ, and not absent himself from the said boat under any pretence whatsoever under the penalty of forty shillings.
Every master of a boat going on a voyage shall take in his provisions for the voyage before his departure and shall lodge on board his boat with his men during his voyage and neither the said Master or his men absent themselves under any pretence whatsoever from the said boat during her voyage under the penalty of five pounds .
And it is further resolved that the above regulations respecting the servants, agents, workmen, boatmen, and others concerned on the works of the said Canal Navigation are hereby made Byelaws for the Government of this Company and ordered to be considered as such and the common seal is affixed hereto accordingly.
Upon further consideration of a Resolution entered into at the last General Meeting held on the 7th day of October 1788 respecting the then intended application to Parliament for an Act for ‘’making and maintaining a Navigable Canal from the River Thames to the Stroudwater Canal at Wallbridge etc’’ Do revoke and rescind the said resolution, and do now empower the committee of this Company to treat with the Commissioners of the Thames or Isis upon the most advantageous entrance into the River Thames , and pursue such measures as they shall judge most advisable for completing and perfecting the connection of the canal Navigation with the said River Thames.
The same Committee elected.
