Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/625

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\'complete the said Canal;' which states that the company had raised a great portion of the sums authorized by former acts, but it had been insufficient for the completion of the undertaking, and it empowers them to raise an additional sum of £20,000 amongst themselves, to enable them to pay off their debt and complete the work; and by the last act of parliament relating to this canal, passed in 1821, and entitled, 'An Act to enable the Company of Proprietors of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal Navigation, to subscribe a further Sum of Money, for the Purposes of the said Navigation,' they are empowered to raise an additional sum of £21,882 amongst themselves, to enable them to complete the navigation.

Upon this work there is a tunnel of three hundred and twenty yards in length, near Milepole Hill, and several small aqueduct bridges; from Stratford to Copmass Hill, one mile and a half, is level; thence to Wilmcote, one mile, is a rise of 86 feet; thence to Preston Mill, six miles, is level; thence to Preston Green, one mile and three quarters, is a rise of 76 feet; thence to Lapworth Hall, one mile, is level; thence to Hockley Heath, two miles and a quarter, is a rise of 147 feet ; and thence to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, ten miles, is level; making a distance of twenty-three miles and a half, with a rise of 309 feet. The Tamworth Branch is level and connects with the summit pound; the first two miles and a half of the Temple Grafton Branch is level, but there is a rise of 20 feet in the next mile and a half.

This work forms a link in the great chain of inland canal communication, and passing through a country abounding with coal and limestone, affords, by its connection with other canals, the means of their transit, as well as other commodities, to all parts of the country.

STRATFORD AND MORETON RAILWAY.

2 George IV. Cap. 63, Royal Assent 28th May, 1821.

6 George IV. Cap. 168, Royal Assent 22nd June, 1825.

THIS railway commences at the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, in Old Stratford, Warwickshire, and passes in a southerly direction,