Tue 21 Jul 1840
Special Meeting. Complaint from Messrs T & S S Marling of Company’s servant Hooper taking water at feeder at Ebley. William Hooper reported paddles up Monday 13th. Taken up on previous Saturday. No water had come in. 10 o’clock Monday Messrs Marling sent him to shut down paddles which Hooper refused to do until canal had been supplied. Paddles put down 5 or 6 o’clock Tuesday, canal still 3 inches under level. Paddles up 9 o’clock evening of Tuesday 14th, Mr S S Marling being present. Remained up till ¼ past 5 o’clock Wednesday morning 15th. 8 o’clock evening canal 4 inches under level. Again drew paddles. No water came in, 3 vessels waiting, so up till 9 o’clock evening Friday 19th. Canal full, paddles down. 16, 17, 18 no water into canal. Solicitor to write to Marling’s about company’s authority for taking water and their desire to supply canal by mode and time least injurious to mill’s owner. Much of difficulty caused by alteration or obliteration of stream to reservoirs of Messrs Marling. The current mill is not the one mentioned in the Act.
At a Special Meeting of the Committee of the Stroudwater Navigation held at the Committee Room at Walbridge on Tuesday the 21^st day of July 1840
Present: Mess^rs Samuel Fisher, John Stanton, Henry Wyatt, John Beard, P H Fisher, Robert Hughes, George Wathen, T C Croome.
A Letter was received and read from Mess^rs R & S S Marling (dated 15^th July 1840) wherein they complain of our Servant Hooper's taking water at the Feeder at Ebley; and asking if that were done by our Order; & if so, requesting to be informed by whose _authority_ the water was this taken from their Mill.
Our Servant William Hooper being examined reported That the paddles were up (as Mess^rs Marling has stated) on Monday 13^th having been taken up the previous Saturday night, but no water had come in.
That about 1 o'clock on Monday pm Mess^rs (?) Marling sent to him to shut down the paddles which Hooper refused to do until the Canal had been supplied.
That he thinks he put down the paddles about 5 0r 6 o'clock on the morning of Tuesday though the canal had been filled only one inch, leaving it still 3 inches under level.
That he took up the paddles at 9 o'clock of the evening of Tuesday the 14^th M^r S S Marling being present; and that they remained up until ¼ past 5 o'clock on the Morning of Wednesday the 15^th until which time the Canal was not filled (at 9 o'clock the preceding Evening it was 3 inches under level) but even if it has filled between those hours, any excess would have returned into the Reservoir.
At 8 o'clock on the Evening of the 15^th inst^t the Canal was 4 inches under level, when he again drew up the paddles, but no water came in (there were 3 vessels waiting).
The paddles continued up till 9 o'clock on the evening of Sunday the 19^th, when the Canal being full he again put them down.
The 16^th, 17 & 18^th no water cane into the Canal; but it flowed in on Sunday morning.
Ordered that our Solicitors do reply to Mess^r Marlings Letter stating that our authority for taking water fro the use of the Canal is the provision of the Act of Incorporation in that respect, but that the Company were always desirous of supply their Canal by the mode & at the times when the doing so would be least injurious to the Mill owners; in doing which the Mill owners themselves would assist the Company - and intimating that the committee will at all times be ready to consider any suggestion of Mess^rs Marling in the subject of supplying the Canal; as also that much of the difficulty (if not all of it) has been occasioned by the alterations or obliteration of the Stream in relation to the Reservoir of Mess^rs Marlings - which alteration having directed & indeed obliterated the course of the Brook, so far as it formerly passed under the Canal to the old Ebley Mill [_and that there is not now the Ebley Mill mentioned in the Act._]
