page_title: Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation
section_title: Decline
hierarchical_section_title: Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation / Decline
caption_attribution_description: English: sign at paper mill lock
context_page_description: The Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation is the canalisation of the Rivers Chelmer and Blackwater in Essex, in the east of England. The navigation runs for 13.75 miles from Springfield Basin in Chelmsford to the sea lock at Heybridge Basin near Maldon. It was opened in 1797, and remained under the control of the original company until 2003. It is now run by Essex Waterways Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Inland Waterways Association.
context_section_description: The Eastern Counties Railway reached Chelmsford in 1843, and a branch line from Witham reached Maldon in 1848, but there was never a direct line between the two towns. Although trade declined, the impact of the railways was less significant than on many canals. Following the Second World War, the sea lock into Heybridge Basin was extended to 107 by 26 feet (32.6 by 7.9 m), so that coasters carrying timber from the continent could enter the basin to transfer their cargo to barges. Traffic slowly declined until the last load of timber was delivered to Browns Yard (now Travis Perkins) on Springfield Basin in 1972. Although commercial traffic ceased, the navigation continued to derive income from water abstraction and from the sale of wood from the willows which grow along the banks. The willow is used for making cricket bats, and the trees were first planted in the 1880s when one of the directors saw the need for alternative sources of income.
  The navigation is unusual in that it was not nationalised in 1948 when most of the other waterways in the UK were, and remained under the control of the original Company of Proprietors of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Ltd.
caption: Sign at Paper Mill Lock
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