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Department of Geography

 

 

Navigable waterways 1600-1729

For the last Leverhulme grant an important element of the transport work was the creation of a GIS of the navigable waterways c.1600-1729. This was done by adding attribute data (i.e. dates of opening, completion or closure) to a pre-existing GIS. The attribute data was derived from a bibliographical exercise that systematically updated the information published by T.S. Willan in his pioneering book "River Navigation in England 1600-1750" in 1936. Willan used mapping to underpin his claim that the period was one of "remarkable development" with the area inaccessible to water transport undergoing a dramatic reduction. Willan used a generous distance threshold of fifteen miles to define the area of land accessible to river or sea transport. The first two maps use the the same distance threshold of fifteen miles. The next two maps use a much more conservative distance threshold of three miles. The economic signifigance of these difference distance thresholds requires further investigation. Analysis of transport and commodity cost data has the potential to reveal how far from navigable waterways important high bulk, low value goods, such as coal, might travel before they became uneconomic.

Land with 15 miles of the sea or a navigable waterway 1600-1660

Land with 15 miles of the sea or a navigable waterway 1700-1727

Land with 3 miles of the sea or a navigable waterway 1600-1660

Land with 3 miles of the sea or a navigable waterway 1700-1727