Fri 28 Oct 1831
Frances Lockey and Charles Beard claimed shares nos.111,65,66, will of George Lockey.
Letter from W B Clegram, clerk to Gloucester & Berkeley Canal Company. No plan for carrying permission to take water from Whitminster Mill pond into effect laid before or approved by Committee. Water should be taken by a weir until permanent plan decided on.
Four underground aqueducts within 8 inches of bottom of the brook put by Gloucester & Berkeley Canal Company into this Navigation, in September last, as ordinary mode of taking water, 2 feet 8½ inches wide, 1 foot 7 inches high, without consent or knowledge of Committee, whereby large quantities of mud, soil and silt have been brought in to great injury of Navigation. Mode of taking water highly objectionable, not to be continued. Letter to Clerk of Gloucester & Berkeley Canal Company stating that the order for shutting lock gate near Whitminster was solely because it appeared necessary to keep up their level, called the Bristol Road level, uniformly to its proper height. Committee desire lock gates to be kept open present, to afford Gloucester & Berkeley Canal Company time to devise plan for feeding canal without requiring lock to be kept open in future. Any plan for this and for some less objectionable mode of taking water will be considered.
At an adjourned Meeting of the Committee of the Stroudwater Navigation held at the Committee Room at Walbridge on Friday the 28^th day of October 1831
Present: Samuel Fisher, P H Fisher, William Cosham, Joseph Grazebrook, Joseph F Fisher, Henry Wyatt.
Thomas Croome Esquire attended on the part of Frances Lockey of the parish of S^t Leonards in the county of Devon, Widow, and Charles Beard of the City of Exeter Esquire, Executrix and Executor of George Lockey late of the parish of S^t Leonared aforesaid, deceased, and made out their Claim, as such Executrix and Executor as aforesaid To Three Shares, (numbered 111 _ 65 and 66) in the Stroudwater Navigation standing in the name of the said George Lockey, by Producing the Probate of the last Will and Testament of the said George Lockey Dated the Seventeenth day of February one thousand Eight hundred and twenty four, and proved by them in the prerogative Court of Canterbury the eighth day of October 1931. And this claim of the said Frances Lockey are allowed accordingly.
A letter from W B Clegram (as Clerk to the Gloucester & Berkeley Canal Company) dated 25^th ins^t, addressed to the Committee, having been laid before the General Meeting yesterday, and being now read.
The Order of the date of 28^th Oct. 1820 for permitting (on the Terms therein mentioned) the Gloucester & Berkeley Canal to take water from the Whitminster Mill pond, having been read and considered, as also the Order of the last Committee Meeting.
It being found that no plan for carrying the permissions to take water into effect, or of the necessary Works, had ever been laid before, or been approved by the Committee; - but that the original understanding theron was that the same should be taken by a Weir, until some permanent plan should be decided on.
And it being found that four underground aqueducts within 8 inches of the bottom of the brook were (by the Gloucester & Berkeley Canal Company) put in form thence into their Navigation, in September last, which have since been used as the ordinary mode of taking the Water (each of such trunks being of the width of Two feet Eight inches & a half, and the height of 1 foot 7 ^in) without the consent of knowledge of the Committee; whereby large quantities of mud soil and silt have been brought into the Navigation to the great injury of the Navigation: - And it being the opinion of this Meeting that the mode so recently resorted to and at present used for so taking the Water is highly objectionable, and ought not to be continued:-
It appearing however that the strictly enforcing the said Order of the last Committee Meeting may be injurious to the Gloucester & Berkeley Canal, & ought therefore to be suspended (if required) for some short period.
Ordered that our Clerk Do write and forward the following Letter to the Clerk of the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal Company in reply.
"Sirs Canal Office Walbridge 29^th October 1831
I am directed by the Committee of the Stroudwater Navigation to reply to your Letter of the 25^th Ins^t, on the part of the Committee of the Gloucester & Berkeley Canal.
And I beg to inform you that the Order for shutting the Lock Gates near Whitminster Mills, to which you refer, was made solely because it appeared to the Committee (as it did also to the Proprietors at their General Meeting on the 27^th Ins^t) necessary to keep up their level called the Bristol Road level uniformly to its proper height. If the object of the Order had been to cut off the supply of Water to the Gloucester & Berkeley Canal; or had this, (as its effect) been in the minds of the Committee of the Stroudwater Navigation, the Order would have been communicated directly to the Committee of the Gloucseter & Berkeley Canal. It has however been represented that this Order does in effect prevent or retard the supply of water: And, as the Committee of the Stroudwater Navigation are desirous of avoiding as much as possible, any sudden inconvenience to the Gloucester & Berkeley Canal Company, - I am directed to say, that if their Committee desire the Lock Gates to be kept open for the present in order to afford them time to devise a plan for feeding the Canal without requiring this Lock to be kept open in future; And if they will state what time is requisite for that purpose, the same will, I doubt not, be readily Ordered. I am also to assure the Committee that, if any plan for attaining the above object, and also fro providing some less objectionable mode of taking the Water than that which has recently been resorted to, should be laid before the Committee of the Stroudwater Navigation, the same will be immediately considered. Signed Geo: Hawker"
Ordered that the following postscript be added to the Circular Letter about to be issued by the Clerk. - viz: P.S. "I am directed to inform you that in consequence of a considerable loss which has been sustained in the Coal trade by the insolvency of the Company's Sole Agent at Dudbridge Wharf, The General Meeting cam to the resolution of discontinuing this Trade in Coald at all the Wharfs except Walbridge Wharf"
Ordered that this meeting be adjourned to Thursday next at 11 o'clock.
