27-481: The Leominster Canal was an English canal which ran for just over 18 miles from Mamble to Leominster through 16 locks and a number of tunnels, some of which suffered engineering problems even before the canal opened. Originally, the canal was part of a much more ambitious plan to run 46 miles from Stourport to Kington . Following the opening of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in 1772, which linked
54-637: A meeting in December 1789 for a 31-mile (50 km) canal, costing £83,000, with estimated receipts of £4,300 per year. Three tunnels would be required, at Putnal Field, Southnet and Pensax. Despite the low estimated returns, a meeting in January 1790 decided to proceed with Dadford's canal. A further meeting was held in Kington in April, and there were calls to build a connecting canal to the town. The two schemes became one, and
81-502: A stationary engine, or pulled by small, light locomotives. Tramways can exist in many forms; sometimes simply tracks temporarily placed on the ground to transport materials around a factory, mine or quarry. Many use narrow-gauge railway technology, but because tramway infrastructure is not intended to support the weight of vehicles used on railways of wider track gauge , the infrastructure can be built using less substantial materials, enabling considerable cost savings. The term "tramway"
108-564: Is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire , England. It is located on the A456 between Bewdley and Tenbury Wells . Notable buildings include the 13th century sandstone church and the nearby 17th century Sun & Slipper Inn . Roman remains have been found in the area at Sodington Hall , and at the time of the Domesday Book
135-591: Is not used in North America, but is commonly used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere where British railway terminology and practices influenced management practices, terminologies and railway cultures, such as Australia , New Zealand , and those parts of Asia, Africa and South America that consulted with British engineers when undergoing modernization. In New Zealand, they are commonly known as " bush tramways " and are often not intended to be permanent. In Australia
162-584: The River Rea , and parts of a three-arched aqueduct over the River Teme . The centre arch of the latter was destroyed as part of an explosives exercise during the Second World War , but the remains became a Grade II listed structure in 2000. The Rea aqueduct consisted of a single brick span of 45 feet (13.7 m) with a brick-lined trough to carry the canal over it. It was thought to be the largest brick span at
189-563: The authorised route to Stourport and extend the canal on a new alignment to the River Severn at Worcester . Nothing came of this plan, either. In January 1794 the canal opened from Marlbrook to Woofferton and seven boatloads of coal were transported from the Mamble collieries on the first day. Engineering difficulties delayed the opening of Putnall Tunnel (south of Woofferton) until 1796. By the end of that year an 18.5 miles (29.8 km) stretch of
216-473: The canal was open between Marlbrook and Leominster and on the first day 14 boatloads of coal arrived in Leominster. Coal from the Mamble collieries was brought down the hill on tramways to Southnet wharf, where it was loaded onto barges and transported to Leominster. For the next 60 years, the canal carried coal to Leominster, enabling the Mamble collieries to prosper. However the traffic from Mamble Colliery
243-669: The canal was unprofitable and was closed in 1859. There was once a greyhound coursing club in the village in the mid-19th century when races were run for a silver cup. Mamble is chiefly remembered today as the title of a 1915 poem by John Drinkwater speculating about what lay at the end of a turning that he never took: This Worcestershire location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Tramway (industrial) Tramways are lightly laid industrial railways , often not intended to be permanent. Originally, rolling stock could be pushed by humans, pulled by animals (especially horses and mules), cable-hauled by
270-516: The canal, which valued each £100 share at £16, and drained it soon after to sell the land. Part of the route was subsequently used for the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway that connected Woofferton to Bewdley via Tenbury Wells station, which was actually in Burford, Shropshire , not Tenbury Wells . Although the canal has been closed for over 150 years, there are some remains left, including an aqueduct over
297-496: The existing works from Southnet to Leominster, and that another £135,937 would be needed to complete the project. Undaunted, the proprietors applied for a second act of Parliament, the Leominster Canal Act 1795 ( 36 Geo. 3 . c. 70 ), which they obtained on 26 April 1796, authorising them to raise or borrow a further £180,000. The 330-yard (300 m) tunnel at Putnall Fields, which had proved very difficult to construct,
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#1732844638432324-567: The ground they were less likely to be blocked by debris, but they obstructed other traffic, and the wagons could not be used beyond the limits of the rails – whereas plateways had the advantage that trucks with unflanged wheels could be wheeled freely on wharves and in factories. Edge rails were the forerunners of the modern railway track. These early lines were built to transport minerals from quarries and mines to canal wharves. From about 1830, more extensive trunk railways appeared, becoming faster, heavier and more sophisticated and, for safety reasons,
351-454: The industrial Midlands to the River Severn at Stourport, the engineer Robert Whitworth proposed a canal to link Stourport to Hereford, passing through Pensax and Leominster in 1777. Meetings were held at Leominster and Tenbury Wells in 1789, at which it was decided to survey possible routes from Leominster to Stourport. Thomas Dadford, Jr. carried out the survey, and presented a plan to
378-502: The proprietors sought the advice of John Hodgkinson, as to how the canal could be completed. As a railway engineer, Hodgkinson recommended that railways should be built at either end of the existing section of canal, to connect to Kington and Stourport. Although another act of Parliament, the Leominster Canal Act 1803 ( 43 Geo. 3 . c. cxli), was obtained, no construction work took place. Nine years later, they again approached Hodgkinson, and this time he suggested that they should abandon
405-466: The public highway, sharing with other road users. Initially horse-drawn, they were developed to use electric power from an overhead line . A development of the tramway in the United Kingdom was the trolleybus , which dispensed with tracks but drew electricity from overhead wires . Between 2001 and 2020, two trams built to carry automotive parts (the " CarGoTram ") operated in Dresden , Germany between
432-512: The requirements placed on them by Parliament became more and more stringent. See rail tracks . These restrictions were excessive for the small mineral lines and it became possible in the United Kingdom for them to be categorised as light railways subject to certain provisos laid down by the Light Railways Act 1896 . Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom the term tramway became the term for passenger vehicles (a tram ) that ran on tracks in
459-577: The section from Leominster to Woofferton completed, while beyond Marlbrook the 1,254-yard (1,147 m) Southnet tunnel was finished and work started on an aqueduct over the River Lugg at Kingsland . Around £90,000 had been spent to reach this stage. There were problems with the Southnet tunnel, part of which collapsed in 1795. The Proprietors sought the advice of John Rennie , who criticised Dadford's work. He estimated that £20,000 would be required to rectify
486-459: The settlement was known as Mamele . In subsequent years Mamble parish was in the lower division of Doddingtree Hundred. The parish church of St John Baptist dates from about 1200 and has a wooden bell turret. The brick-built side chapel of the Blount family, formerly from Sodington Hall, was added in the 16th century but was unroofed in the mid-20th century and is now in ruins. Although agriculture
513-503: The shaft of a wheelbarrow—in turn from Low German traam , meaning a beam. The tracks themselves were sometimes known as gangways , dating from before the 12th century, being usually simply planks laid upon the ground literally "going road". In south Wales and Somerset the term "dramway" is also used, with vehicles being called drams. An alternative term, " wagonway " (and wainway or waggonway), originally consisted of horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons. Usually
540-516: The term was widely used in connection with logging, no longer extant. Today in the state of Queensland , however, there remain several thousand kilometres of sugar-cane tramways . Passengers do not generally travel aboard tramways, although employees sometimes use them, either officially or unofficially. The term was originally applied to wagons running on primitive tracks in mediaeval Great Britain and Europe . The name seems to date from about 1517 and to be derived from an English dialect word for
567-758: The time of its construction, and like the Teme aqueduct, it was Grade II listed in 2000. It has become a right of way across the River Rea, but the footpath was closed in 2014 following a partial collapse of the canal trough. The Friends of the Leominster Canal exists to raise awareness of the waterway and holds visits to the canal and associated features. Download coordinates as: [REDACTED] Media related to Leominster Canal at Wikimedia Commons 52°18′48″N 2°40′56″W / 52.3134°N 2.6821°W / 52.3134; -2.6821 Mamble Mamble
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#1732844638432594-591: The total length of the canal would be 46 miles (74 km). From Kington, locks would raise the level of the canal by 48 feet (15 m), and then it would fall by 496 feet (151 m) to reach the River Severn. The lack of major towns or industries did not seem to worry the proposers, and the Leominster Canal Act 1791 ( 31 Geo. 3 . c. 69 ) was obtained on 13 May 1791, which allowed the Proprietors to raise £150,000, with another £40,000 if necessary. Dadford
621-424: The wheels would be guided along grooves. In time, to combat wear, the timber would be reinforced with an iron strip covering. This developed to use L-shaped steel plates, the track then being known as a plateway . An alternative appeared in 1789, the so-called " edge-rail ", which allowed wagons to be guided by having the wheels flanged instead of running, flangeless, in grooves. Since these rails were raised above
648-470: Was always a major industry for the local inhabitants, coal mining was also important from the second half of the 18th century onwards, and the last local pits to the south-east of the village remained in operation until 1944. In the 1790s the Leominster Canal was opened in the area, which allowed coal to be brought down from the colliery by tramway and carried to Tenbury Wells and Herefordshire , but
675-512: Was appointed as Engineer, a position which he held until 1795, although he only devoted one-quarter of his time to the Leominster Canal, as he performed the same role for the Monmouthshire Canal and was contracted to them for the remaining three-quarters of his time. Work began soon after his appointment, and by October 1794, the section from Woofferton near Tenbury to Marlbrook near Mamble was open for traffic. The following year saw most of
702-447: Was completed in July 1796, completing the route to Leominster, and creating a working canal which was 18.5 miles (29.8 km) long. On 1 June 1797, a ceremonial cut was made on the banks of the River Severn, where the canal was eventually planned to join it, but only £62,582 had been raised under the terms of the second act of Parliament, and with some £25,000 owing, all work ceased. In 1803,
729-507: Was not sufficient to run the canal at a profit, so the owners were constantly seeking to extend it eastwards to meet the River Severn, although this never materialised. The canal never paid a dividend. What little money was collected was mostly paid for tolls on the transport of coal. In 1858, after sustained pressure by the Canal Company, the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway paid £12,000 for
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