Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/309

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alone entailed upon that part of the canal. With this understanding, an act received the royal sanction on the 14th June, 1827, entitled, An Act to amend an Act of the Forty-sixth Year of the Reign of his late Majesty, incorporating the Glasgow, Paisley, and Ardrossan Canal Company; and to empower the said Company to form a Railway from Johnstone, in the county of Renfrew, to Ardrossan, in the county of Ayr, and certain Branch Railways communicating therewith; by which the company are authorized to employ the remainder of the original capital stock (of £140,000,) amounting to £95,658, in the formation of a railway to Ardrossan; and that this railway stock should not be liable to the above-recited debts, but that separate accounts shall be kept of the expenditure and proceeds of the canal and of the railway.

By means of this canal and railway, great facilities will be given for exporting coal, from the extensive mines in the line, for the supply of the north and eastern coasts of Ireland, and to receive, in return, supplies of corn for the consumption of the populous places of Glasgow, Paisley, &c. Moreover, it will have the effect of shortening considerably the distance, and rendering more safe the transit of exported manufactured goods from the above-mentioned towns, by avoiding the circuitous route by the River and Firth of Clyde.

GLASTONBURY NAVIGATION.

7 & 8 George IV. Cap. 41, Royal Assent 28th May, 1827.

THIS navigation commences from the confluence of the Rivers Brue and Parrett, in Bridgewater Bay, Bristol Channel, whence it takes a south-eastwardly direction along the course of the River Brue, to Highbridge Lower Floodgates. From this point a canal is to be made in the bed of the river, by Newbridge, to about ten miles beyond Basin Bridge, where it then follows the course of the south drain, over Westhay and Meare Heaths, and through a very flat country to the west side of the town of Glastonbury, where it terminates. The total length of the navigation is fourteen miles, one furlong and seven chains, viz, from low water mark on the shore of the Bristol Channel, to the proposed tide lock near High