Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
20
Gloucester & Sharpness Canal
Distance
27km from Gloucester to Sharpness
Highlights
Gloucester Docks and Waterways Museum
Lock keepers' cottages
Slimbridge Wetland Centre
Purton Hulks, Britain's largest ship graveyard
Sharpness Docks and Lock
Navigation Authority
Canal & River Trust
OS 1:50,000 Sheet
162 Gloucester & Forest of Dean
The Gloucester & Sharpness Canal or Gloucester & Berkeley Canal was built to bypass the
uncertain conditions of the upper Severn estuary for shipping intending to travel upriver, al-
though it stopped short of Berkeley, its proposed destination. Designed by Robert Mylne to
take 1,000t ships, its construction began in 1794 but it was not completed until 1827, by which
time the financial assistance of the Government had been enlisted. When finished, it was the
widest and deepest canal in the world; the last to run a commercial passenger transport service,
the Gloucester & Berkeley Steam Packet Company, which stopped operating in 1935.
The canal is all at one level with lock gates feeding from the River Severn into the docks at
Gloucester, until recent decades the lowest crossing point of the Severn. The docks, Britain's
best Victorian inland port, were completed before the canal so that access was only available
at first from the river at the north end, locking up as the docks are normally 3.7m above river
level. The current lock is 63m x 6.7m, able to take 400t vessels. The dock sides are high, often
with lips that have been worn to a round profile. Dry docks are still in use. The custom house
has the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum. The docks are dominated by a number of seven-
storey, 19th century, brick warehouses, which present a lofty atmosphere with an attraction
