Description

This volume completes a trilogy of albums dedicated to capturing as much as possible of the evidence from historic photographs of two famous canals which together linked the rivers Severn and Thames. Today this route, now in part under active restoration, is known as the Cotswold Canals, a snappy modern name for the historic Stroudwater Navigation, opened in 1779, and the Thames & Severn Canal through which the first boat passed ten years later. Gathering over 800 images together in three volumes has been a long-term labour of love, which began with the first two volumes in 1988 and 1993. Since reprinted by Amberley Publishing in 2010, they attracted a positive response so that this third volume has been compiled to complete the trilogy and make as much material as possible available to the reader. Together they represent a substantial archive of local canal photographs. As with its companion volumes, this edition is presented in the traditional way for these canals, working eastwards from Severn to Thames, historically the way much of its commercial traffic also passed. New material hitherto unpublished has been added, so that the reader can get a real feel of the old line of the canals, through the delights of the Gloucestershire landscape in general and the Cotswolds in particular.