Everything about The River Gipping totally explained
The
River Gipping is the source
river for the
River Orwell in the
county of
Suffolk in
East Anglia,
England.
The river was improved with the addition of 15
locks between
Ipswich and
Stowmarket to form the
Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation, although this name has fallen out of use. The navigation was established by two Acts of Parliament in
1790 and
1793. Recently, the navigation has undergone
restoration.
Early use of the River Gipping
In the year 860 the Danes sailed up the river and established the village of Rattles-dane near the source of the
River Rat. From this village now known as
Rattlesden they attacked the Saxon stronghold of
Haughley Castle.
Stowmarket, a few miles South of Haughley, was of little significance then.
In 1065 Caen stone for
Bury St. Edmunds Abbey was imported from
Normandy and transported in flat-bottomed boats to Rattlesden. Stowmarket church bells were re-cast in the l7th century after being transported down-river.
The first proposal for the construction of the navigation was in 1719, but Ipswich objected, fearing loss of trade. It wasn't until 1789 that six local gentlemen (two of whom were vicars) with foresight realised that because of poor transport, due to badly-maintained turnpike roads, the population and industries were dwindling in the Stowmarket area. They engaged
William Jessop, who employed
Isaac Lenny as the surveyor and a Parliamentary Bill for the construction of the navigation was passed on
1 April 1790.
Construction of the Navigation
Work started that year at the Ipswich end but the contractors Dyson and Pinkerton were dismissed due to problems with trespass. A local contractor was employed to continue work at the Stowmarket end and in 1791
John Rennie was consulted. He reported that three turf and timber locks had been constructed between Stowmarket and
Needham Market, the other main town on the waterway, advised that further lock structures should be of brick and stone and estimated costs to complete the works. This amount was raised by a Parliamentary Bill of 1793.
The navigation was completed in 1793 and three barges loaded with coal made the 17 mile trip from Ipswich to Stowmarket on September 14th, rising 90 feet through 15 locks of broad construction each 55ft by 14ft, the draught being 3.3ft.
Further Information
Get more info on 'River Gipping'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://river_gipping.totallyexplained.com">River Gipping Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
