page_title: Grand Western Canal
section_title: Locations of the boat lifts
hierarchical_section_title: Grand Western Canal / Boat lifts / Locations of the boat lifts
caption_attribution_description: English: The best surviving example of the boat lifts on the Grand Western Canal built in the 1830s. The machinery was removed when this section of the canal closed in 1865.
context_page_description: The Grand Western Canal ran between Taunton in Somerset and Tiverton in Devon in the United Kingdom. The canal had its origins in various plans, going back to 1796, to link the Bristol Channel and the English Channel by a canal, bypassing Lands End. An additional purpose of the canal was the supply of limestone and coal to lime kilns along with the removal of the resulting quicklime, which was used as a fertiliser and for building houses. This intended canal-link was never completed as planned, as the coming of the railways removed the need for its existence.
  Construction was in two phases. A level section from Tiverton to Lowdwells on the Devon/Somerset border, opened in 1814, and was capable of carrying broad-beam barges, carrying up to 40 tons. The Somerset section, suitable for tub boats opened in 1839. It included an inclined plane and seven boat lifts, the earliest lifts to see commercial service in the UK. The lifts predated the Anderton Boat Lift by nearly 40 years.
  The 11 miles of Devon section remains open, despite various threats to its future, and is now a designated country park and local nature reserve, and allows navigation.
caption: Remains of Nynehead Boat Lift.
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