Catalogue description Records of canal undertakings taken over by the British Transport Commission under the Transport Act 1947

Details of Division within RAIL
Reference: Division within RAIL
Title: Records of canal undertakings taken over by the British Transport Commission under the Transport Act 1947
Description:

Records of canal companies and their associated undertakings nationalised by the Transport Act 1947 are in RAIL 800 - RAIL 899, RAIL 1113, RAIL 1168 - RAIL 1171 and RAIL 1173
Date: 1634-1960
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Physical description: 106 series
Publication note:

PRO Domestic Records Information Sheet 83 Canals: Administrative and other Records (1998)
Unpublished finding aids:

An index of the canal companies series precedes the list of RAIL 800

Administrative / biographical background:

The canal network in Britain developed from the later seventeenth century until the mid-19th century; the first statute enabling canal construction being an 'Act for making and keeping navigable the Rivers Aire and Calder in the County of York', of 1699. Governmental involvement in canals developed from the 1850s when the Board of Trade, Railway Department, assumed responsibility for canals.

During the later 19th century, many canal companies, severely affected by the competition from railways, were absorbed into railway companies.

In 1947, surviving canal companies were taken into public ownership by the Transport Act of that year.

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