Image Ref : pbs 0013.jpg

Excavation of barge, Stover Canal, 2016.

Following the opening of the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway in 1866, canal traffic gradually declined. The Ventiford Basin, the canal’s northern terminus, became redundant and fell into disrepair. Over decades, flooding by the River Teign left layers of silt, which built up and buried all evidence of the canal and the tramway. Then, for two weeks in 2014, excavation started on an old barge which had been laid up in the basin when it had become redundant in the late 1800s. This work also uncovered granite walls of the basin. Later in 2014, while Devon County Council was carrying out construction work on the Stover Trail, evidence of the granite tramway was uncovered (images KBS 0044 and PBS 0014). A further two-week excavation continued in 2015. Restoration work was helped in the early summer of 2016 by the involvement of the management and some of the staff of Sibelco, the local clay company. Hundreds of tonnes of silt were removed from the canal channel, revealing more hulked barges and granite ‘rails’. This shows excavation of the remains of a barge at Ventiford Basin in 2016. We acknowledge the details provided by the Inland Waterways Association and the Stover Canal Trust in writing this.