Posted on 06/14/2010 2:11:12 AM PDT by markomalley
The Thames Highway
(16th - 19th centuries)
During the main period covered by this book (1534-1829) the river was the principal highway of the Thames Valley area. Road transport was much less reliable, and could be from three to twelve times as expensive.
As many as 300 flat-bottomed 'Western' barges plied the river. The largest of these were four times as long as a London bus and more than twice as wide. They could carry up to 200 tons of cargo. Yet when fully laden they could operate in water little more than four feet deep.
The construction of the Western barge changed little over the centuries. The flat bottom was usually built of elm planks, three inches wide. These ran along the length of the vessel and were grooved together, the joints sealed with pitch and old rope fibres. There was a planked floor to prevent the cargo damaging the bottom of the barge.
The vessel's sides were formed of oak planks coated with pitch, and the upper edge of the hull was protected by a substantial timber rail called the gunwale. The stern was square cut and strongly constructed to support a huge rudder. Crew quarters were situated at the stern and consisted of little more than a space covered by a canvass awning. The rest of the vessel was devoted to cargo.
Whenever possible a sail was used to help propel the boat. The mast stood amidships. It was usually from the top of this that the barge would be towed.
Until the mid eighteenth century it was unusual for horses to be used for towing. Instead teams of hauliers were recruited from the dregs of society along the river valley. A heavy barge might need as many as sixty men to pull it, and the haulier gangs were feared by the more respectable Thameside residents. Only in times of drought would animals be used to augment the efforts of the hauliers. When the water level was low barges could be stranded in mud for weeks, and horses or oxen would therefore be borrowed from local farmers to try to free the vessels.
When the use of horse teams eventually became commonplace, as many as a dozen horses were used to pull a large vessel against the current. The massive tow ropes could be over 200 yards long and might weigh more than six hundredweight. They needed frequent replacement and cost the equivalent of about £500 each in today's money.
The old bridge at Henley-on-Thames posed an obstacle to navigation, being impassable by larger craft during the drier half of the year. This necessitated transferring cargoes, either to other craft, or to road transport. Wagons carrying relatively light cargoes destined for Wallingford, or further upstream, could take a short cut across the Chilterns, avoiding the long loop in the river between Wallingford and Henley. Further upstream large barges were prevented from reaching Oxford by the rocky river bed at Clifton Hampden. Their cargoes would therefore be transferred to smaller craft at Burcot, a mile or so downstream of the rocky shallows.
From 1624 onwards navigational improvements were made by the installation of more and better locks, by the digging of new channels to bypass difficult sections of river, and by the introduction of regulations to control toll charges and the operation of locks. The canalisation of one of the Thames's major tributaries, the Kennet, began in 1719. But the problems at Henley remained until the old bridge was demolished to make way for the present structure, completed in 1786.
By the early nineteenth century the river journey from Oxford to London could be completed in three and a half days. It was also possible to travel by barge from the Thames Valley to the West Country and the Midlands.
However, three years after Catholic Emancipation a committee was formed to investigate the possibility of a railway to link London and Bristol. The result was the Great Western, which operated its first public service between Reading and London in March 1840. It was the beginning of the end for the Thames as a commercial highway.
Map 1 (1000 x 827 pixels) Although not as easy to read as the map below, this version is quick loading and gives a good appreciation of the area covered.
Map 2 (2058 x 1701 pixels) Four times the size, and therefore much clearer, this map will open in a separate window making it easier to correlate with the text. You will need to use your vertical and horizontal scroll bars.
How Christianity Came to the Thames Valley (3rd-7th cent.)
Lollard Influence (1382 onwards)
The Thames Highway (16th-19th cent.)
The Early Catholic Martyrs (1534-1539)
The Religious Changes (1534-1558)
The Elizabethan Settlement (1558-70)
The First Missionaries (1570-1581)
The Press at Stonor (1581)
The Mission Becomes Established (1582-1588)
Thomas Belson (1583-1589)
Elizabeth's Later Years (1589-1603)
The Gunpowder Plot (1604-1606)
The Jacobean Period (1606-1625)
Charles I (1625-1642)
The Civil War (1642-1646)
The Commonwealth (1646-1660)
The Restoration (1660-1685)
The End of a Dream (1685-1700)
When Alexander Pope Lived in Berkshire (1700-1715)
Twixt Fifteen and Forty-Five (1715-1745)
Low Ebb (1745-1770)
A Little Relief (1770-1792)
The French Exiled Clergy (1790-1808)
Emancipation (1808-1829)
Appendices:
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