page_title: River Gipping
section_title: Decline
hierarchical_section_title: River Gipping / Construction of the navigation / Decline
caption_attribution_description: English: Warehouse, Fisons Works (Destroyed by fire in 2019).
context_page_description: The River Gipping is the source river for the River Orwell in the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, England, which is named from the village of Gipping, and which gave its name to the former Gipping Rural District. The name is unrelated to the name of Ipswich. although the County Town takes its name from Gippeswic. It rises near Mendlesham Green and flows in a south-westerly direction to reach Stowmarket. From there it flows towards the south or south east, passing through Needham Market and a number of villages to reach Ipswich, where it becomes the Orwell. The river has supplied power to a number of watermills, several of which are still standing. None are operational, although the mill at Baylham retains most of its machinery, and is the only complete mill on the river.
  There is evidence that the river was used for navigation in the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, but in 1790, an Act of Parliament was obtained to enable the river to be improved from Ipswich to Stowmarket. This was achieved by building 15 locks, and the river was then known as the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation, although the name has now fallen out of use.
context_section_description: When the Eastern Union Railway announced plans for an extension from Ipswich to Stowmarket in 1844, the Trustees negotiated with the company to lease their canal. They hoped that this would be of benefit to the shareholders, and that it would help the railway by removing one source of opposition to their plans. They submitted a firm proposal for the lease on 8 February 1845, to which the railway agreed, and the shareholders sanctioned the action soon afterwards. They engaged a Parliamentary agent to handle the details, who realised that the original Act of Parliament, dating from 1790, expressly prohibited the Trustees from leasing the canal. By September, the two sides had agreed that each of them would seek to obtain powers to overturn the clause. The railway company would pay £1,070 per year for the first 21 years, and £850 per year for the second 21 years. The Trustees sought an Act of Parliament to authorise this, which contained a clause requiring the railway company to maintain the navigation. The House of Lords were not convinced that the clause was strong enough, and amended it to ensure that the railway had to maintain it "in as good a state and condition as the same shall be at the time of passing of the Act." With this amendment in place, the Act was passed on 26 June 1846.
  Meanwhile, the railway company was obtaining its own Act, which had initially included a similar clause about maintenance, but this had been dropped by the time the Act was passed. The Railway Commissioners voiced their concern that the railway had somehow managed to gain control over a navigation without any of the details being included in their own Act. They raised the issue in their report to Parliament in 1847.
  The line opened in 1846, and with it came a serious decline in traffic on the navigation. The condition of the waterway declined, and the Railway Commissioners asked the Great Eastern Railway who had taken over the Eastern Union Railway, to repair the defective sections in 1869. When the 42-year period of the lease was close to ending, the two sides met, and the railway declined to extend the lease. The navigation was by this time in a poor condition, with little traffic, but because of the clause in the 1846 Act, the railway company offered the Trustees £2,000 in lieu of repairs. This was agreed on 5 January 1888, and the money was paid on 23 March.
  Trade on the upper part of the navigation to Stowmarket was extremely limited, with just an occasional barge carrying manure to Prentice's Manure Works, and returning with guncotton, which was manufactured at an explosives works. There was more traffic between Ipswich and Bramford, as barges regularly worked to Fison's and Packard's factories. The companies paid lower tolls because they helped to maintain the lock gates and clear weeds from the channel. 30-ton barges were worked through the lower four locks in trains of two dumb barges with a steam-powered barge pulling them. By 1917, the undertaking was virtually bankrupt. Income amounted to around £220 per year, with expenditure running at £480, and there was no capital left. The Trustees tried to make economies, but in May 1922, with the current account overdrawn, they resolved to close the navigation from 3 June 1922.
  The Trustees met again in November 1930, and in 1932 resolved to formally close the navigation. The passing of the Land Drainage Act 1930 meant that they did not need to obtain an Act of Parliament to do so, and instead a closing order was obtained under section 41 of that Act. The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries confirmed the order on 5 October 1932. A final meeting was held on 16 March 1934, when debts were settled, and the remaining money was split between East Suffolk County Council and the Catchment Board, who had responsibility for the river under the terms of the Land Drainage Act. All records were passed to the clerk of the Catchment Board, and the meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the Trustees' own clerk for his commitment over the years. The waterway gradually fell into decay.
caption: Part of Fison's grade II listed factory, built in 1858 and destroyed by fire in 2019, which shipped fertiliser down the navigation during its final years
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