Carlisle Canal

The River Eden flows through the city of Carlisle, and into the Solway Firth. There were coal mines at Maryport, a little further down the coast, and prior to 1720 places along the river were supplied with coal by boats. However, this trade ended in 1720, when duties were levied on all goods carried around the coast by sea, and it became cheaper to transport the coal by land. Three traders from Carlisle, John Hicks, Henry Orme and Thomas Pattinson, sought an act of Parliament which would waive the coastwise duties between Ellen Foot, as Maryport was then known, and Bank End, which was located on the river close to Carlisle. The act enabled them to build wharves, cranes and warehouses, and…

The committee appointed Chapman as consulting engineer, but who held the position of resident engineer is less clear. Richard Buck had helped Chapman with the initial surveys, and it appears that his brother Henry fulfilled that role at the start of the project. Contracts to build the entire canal had been awarded by early 1820, but relationships between Chapman, Buck and the committee were not good, and the committee asked Thomas Ferrier from the Forth and Clyde Canal to oversee the works in March. Buck was not happy with this and resigned in July. but Richard Buck stayed on, effectively working for Ferrier. Chapman was not happy with this situation, and in November 1822, when most of the…