Gauging Cargo

Reader's Letters & Queries: NarrowBoat, Summer 2008

A couple of comments on Christopher Jones’ article on tolls (Spring 2008 NB). One of the main items which tolls paid for was water, and additional tolls were charged where goods only travelled a short distance. For example, there was a minimum 8-mile charge for boats off the Aire & Calder Navigation using the Leeds end of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. They may only have used one lock, but that water had to be supplied from the canal’s reservoirs in the same way as for boats travelling much further. The minimum charge went towards the cost of water, and could encourage cargoes to be carried further on the canal. The Railway & Canal Traffic Acts, passed in 1854, 1873 and 1888, sought to bring some measure of equality and competition for rates, with the Railway & Canal Commission set up in 1889 providing a court for establishing and varying rates. The classification of different cargoes was then established under the Canal Rates, Tolls & Charges Order Confi…