 |
 |
Dear List, I'm researching boat levels for my forthcoming book on the Tavistock Canal. Can anyone tell me what has been published on them, including contemporary sources, and preferably involving later 18th to mid-19th century examples? The Tavistock Canal Tunnel has hooks and eyes driven into its roof at intervals, from which I think a chain or rope was hung in swags, for the boatmen to pull themselves along. I've recently found evidence of such a system at Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Harz Mountains, but this was 1850s-60s. It was interesting as their boats were fitted with removable containers, just like ours. Obviously I'm interested in examples which might have been copied by John Taylor in his tunnel, driven between 1803 and 1816, although the hand-haulage ropes may have been used up to 1821 in association with underground mining. Robert Waterhouse _________________________________________________________________ Feel like a local wherever you go. http://www.backofmyhand.com