The Gloucestershire Heritage Hub contains the records of the Thames and Severn Canal from 1751 to 1898. Study of the import and export books for Brimscombe Port during the period in which the canal company acted as a trading company allows the wide range of customers using the canal in its early years to be explored. We have loaded up some summaries of records, taken from September 1802 and March 1803, onto our website to give you an idea of what these books can tell you. Details of the fields used to create these summaries are provided in Exploring the Thames and Severn Import Books.
After the canal company stopped trading the import and export books record which boats took their cargoes up and down the canal. We have summarised the records of boats passing through Brimscombe Port in September 1812, March 1813, September 1835 and March 1836, together a summary of the cargo manifests for boats passing through Brimscombe in September 1835 .
The records at the Gloucester Heritage Hub include minutes and letters written by the company, and ledgers and journals that record payments made to and by the company. Details of boats built and repaired at the Bourne yard are also available. A list of boats owned by the Thames and Severn Canal Company, prepared by Humphrey Household as part of his PhD thesis, is also available.
At present we have insufficient volunteers to put Thames and Severn documents on-line. If you would like to help improve this side of our archives please take a look at our Becoming a Volunteer page.
