top of page

"A Valued Survivor"

Timeline

Chronology of the Canal and

the World Beyond

​

1793

Initial Act authorising construction of the Stratford Canal

Canal mania at its height
Cotton gin invented
Louis XVI executed

 

1795

Act to alter the line to make a junction with the Warwick and Birmingham canal at Kingswood

First horse-drawn railroad in England
Metric system adopted in France

​

1796

Stratford Canal opened to Hockley Heath

Smallpox vaccination introduced

 

1802

24th May, Stratford Canal opened to the junction with Warwick and Birmingham canal

Atomic theory proposed

Napoleonic Wars from 1803 to 1815

 

1813

Canal opened to Wootton Wawen in July

First bicycle
Pride and Prejudice published

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1816

Canal opened throughout to Stratford on 24th June

Economic crisis - massive emigration to USA and Canada

 

1821

Reservoir built at Earlswood

Principles of electromagnetism discovered

 

1838

Trade in coal peaked on the Stratford Canal at 181,708 tons in the year

Queen Victoria on the throne
Oliver Twist published

 

1856

Canal sold to the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Company

Crimean War ended

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1865

Ownership of the Stratford Canal passed to the Great Western Railway Company

Alice in Wonderland published
First Trans-Atlantic cable laid

​

1892

Probably less than 8,500 tons of cargo travelled on the canal in the year, about one boat each day.

Patents were awarded to Rudolph Diesel for the compression ignition engine and Thomas Edison for his telegraph

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes published

 

1929 Warwick and Birmingham Canal became part of the Grand Union Canal

First TV transmission by John Logie Baird

 

1931 Locks widened on Grand Union Canal

First Highway Code issued

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1948

Ownership of the Canal passed to the state on the nationalisation of railways

Berlin airlift

 

1956

Stratford Canal Club reformed into the Stratford upon Avon Canal Society

Cuban revolution

 

1958

12th June, Warwickshire County Council applied for an Act of Abandonment of the Stratford Canal

First US satellite launched

 

1959

22nd May, notification that application for warrant of abandonment had failed

First microchip made

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1960

29th September, National Trust formally takes over southern section of the Canal

16 African nations become independent

 

1961

Work started to re-open the Stratford Canal

First man in space

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1964

Stratford Canal re-opened to navigation on 11th July by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

Beatlemania in USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1988

Responsibility for the southern section passes to British Waterways on 1st April

Lockerbie bombing of 747

​

1989

"SC25". The Canal Society organised celebrations of twenty-five years since re-opening

Berlin Wall demolished

 

2000

Canal Society marked the millennium by erecting mile-posts along the full length of the canal

Concorde grounded

 

2004

Canal Society celebrated 40 years since the re-opening

European Union enlarged to 25 members

 

2006

Canal Society celebrates 50 years since it was formed

80th birthday of Queen

 

 

 

 

 

 

2012

Management of the Stratford Canal taken on by the Canal & River Trust

photo076.jpg
GWR Loco.jpg
national-trust Sign Logo Jun 2020.jpg
Opening Queen Mother 02 NOT BackgroundSh
BTW LOGO jun 2020.jpg
BW Logo Jun 2020.tif
CRT LOGO Jun 2020.jpg
bottom of page