South West England Canals

The canals of the south west differed from the main network in many ways: they were each isolated, being built for purely local purposes; they were mostly built to support agriculture rather than industry; and they had to overcome more severe topographical difficulties. Hence they used lifts and planes as well as locks, they were generally smaller (mostly tub-boat gauge), they never made any money and, consequently, were generally short lived.

Nevertheless, parts of the Grand Western are still in water.

Canals covered:

  • Bude Canal

  • Tavistock Canal

  • Grand Western Canal

  • Chard Canal

  • Westport Canal

  • Glastonbury Canal

  • Torrington (Rolle) Canal

Want to download the map to help you explore?

Here are two Google Maps that you can download for your personal use. (You will need to zoom in a lot to see the detail).

The map titled RSL shows canal as single lines, that titled RPL shows them as polygons that can be clicked to show more detail. Clicking the square brackets at the top right corner of the map will open it in your ‘Google My Maps’. See the ‘Explanatory Notes’ page for more detail.