Bru
Well-known member
The ownership, history and current status came up in another thread and rather than drift it I though it better to fork the thread
The Company of Proprietors of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Ltd was created by Act of Parliament on 17 June 1793 with powers to raise money, acquire land and build the navigation
The Company exists to this day and still owns the navigation and a handful of other assets
Commercial traffic ceased in 1972 and after a long period of decline the Company went into administration in 2003. The administrators, perforce, sold of virtually all of the Company assets (land, buildings etc) that were not directly concerned with the actual navigation but were willing to cooperate with attempts to save the navigation itself
British Waterways declined to take it over (for complex legal and political reasons they couldn't really do so) and had the IWA not stepped in the Proprietors would have applied for an order revoking the 1793 Act which would have wound up the Company and closed the navigation for good. (I'm not sure, in this particular case, whether all or part of the land would have reverted to the original owners or their beneficiaries)
IWA Ipswich Branch, and particularly it's late lamented chairman Dougie Beard, led an urgent campaign to save the navigation from closure. The sale of assets had rised sufficient money to satisfy the creditors and IWA set up a wholly owned subsidiary company, Essex Waterways Ltd., which took over the day to day management of the canal and it's maintenance
The Company still owns the freehold and will continue to do so as otherwise a new Act of Parliament would be required which would, in the modern world, be all but impossible to obtain. The company is also the statutory navigation authority of the navigation (thus avoiding IWA becoming both poacher and gamekeeper!) and sets the byelaws relating to it
The Company of Proprietors of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Ltd was created by Act of Parliament on 17 June 1793 with powers to raise money, acquire land and build the navigation
The Company exists to this day and still owns the navigation and a handful of other assets
Commercial traffic ceased in 1972 and after a long period of decline the Company went into administration in 2003. The administrators, perforce, sold of virtually all of the Company assets (land, buildings etc) that were not directly concerned with the actual navigation but were willing to cooperate with attempts to save the navigation itself
British Waterways declined to take it over (for complex legal and political reasons they couldn't really do so) and had the IWA not stepped in the Proprietors would have applied for an order revoking the 1793 Act which would have wound up the Company and closed the navigation for good. (I'm not sure, in this particular case, whether all or part of the land would have reverted to the original owners or their beneficiaries)
IWA Ipswich Branch, and particularly it's late lamented chairman Dougie Beard, led an urgent campaign to save the navigation from closure. The sale of assets had rised sufficient money to satisfy the creditors and IWA set up a wholly owned subsidiary company, Essex Waterways Ltd., which took over the day to day management of the canal and it's maintenance
The Company still owns the freehold and will continue to do so as otherwise a new Act of Parliament would be required which would, in the modern world, be all but impossible to obtain. The company is also the statutory navigation authority of the navigation (thus avoiding IWA becoming both poacher and gamekeeper!) and sets the byelaws relating to it
