John Hore

The 23-mile (37 km) section of river from Reading to Newbury has a gradient of 66 inches per mile (1.1 metres per kilometre), thus requiring locks to traverse the terrain. The Kennet Navigation Act (1715) had allowed construction to begin, although straight away the navigation proprietors saw huge expense in employing "unskillful person[s]";[1] ten locks were built at mills on the stretch of river but the severe lack of engineering experience meant the quality of the work undertaken was poor and it progressed at an unacceptable rate, thus Hore was appointed engineer and surveyor.[9] It is likely that Hore's father, as a proprietor of the waterway, had a hand in arranging his son's employment on the project.[10]

Hore recognised the inappropriate nature of this solution, proposing more locks and artificial cuttings to be dug.[1] He was subsequently employed on a salary equivalent to £10,000 in 2019 plus expenses, with a responsibility of delivering 18.5 miles (29.8 km) of navigable waterways, 11 miles (18 km) of which would be new cuttings.[1]

Work on the navigation began in 1719, although local opposition the following year threatened works—Mayor of Reading Robert Blake led a 300-strong mob along with the town's recorder to Burghfield where the construction was damaged; Blake owned a wharf near the junction of the Kennet and River Thames, and feared that his trade would be adversely affected by a new waterway.[11][12] Further setbacks came the following winter, when extraordinary floods damaged the works. In March 1721, an extension to the original timescale was granted. The following July, Hore reported that good progress was being made:

Sheffield and Widmead Cutts are opened, and the two large boats employed raising Colthorp Bank, the dams are made, the screw fixed, and great part of the lock at Aldermaston. I hope next week to begin at Padworth. The locks at Fobney and Southcote are framed, as are the timber work for the two brick locks to be placed in Padworth field except the gates which must be those from the Old Locks when taken up and altered.

— John Hore, July 1721

The screw to which Hore refers is an Archimedes screw, used in the lock excavations to remove water. Despite referring to brick locks in Padworth field, all of Hore's locks in the area—from Aldermaston to Tyle Mill—were turf-sided.[13][14][15][16]

Garston Lock is one of two remaining turf-sided locks on the canal, although it has been reduced in dimensions since its original building

Hore's specifications for the canal defined cutting widths of 54 feet (16 m), with a depth of 5 feet (1.5 m). The navigable sections of river were 70 feet (21 m) wide.[1] The vast majority of Hore's locks were turf-sided (a framed chamber built within sloping sides covered in vegetation); it is likely that Hore was influenced by the turf locks on the Wey Navigation and the Exeter Canal, which predated Hore's project by 70 and 150 years respectively.[10][4] A small number of locks were built from brick.[1] Hore's lock dimensions were substantial, with a width of 19 feet (5.8 m) and length of 114 feet (35 m) to allow barges carrying loads of over 100 tons.

Hore's work was completed in 1723 (with the towing path usable by the following year),[17] providing a navigable waterway as well as wharves and basins at Aldermaston and Newbury. The Kennet Navigation opened on 1 June 1723[17] at a cost of approximately £40,000 (equivalent to £6,308,000 in 2019)[18]—although it is speculated that the cost of the towpath itself cost a further £30,000 (equivalent to £4,714,000 in 2019).[19] After the canal's opening, Hore retained his salary and was appointed Surveyor of Works and wharfinger at Newbury as a lifelong position. However, the navigation proprietors (appointed in 1720) dismissed Hore in 1724—he had incurred significant costs from landowners in the early 1720s, and was unable to account for these expenses to the governing body.[18] Despite agreeing to a reimbursement of £840 (equivalent to £130,000 in 2019), the proprietors failed to pay this—and further expenses—to Hore. Hore took the organisation to arbitration in 1731, and by 1734 his salary was reinstated and increased to £100 (equivalent to £16,000 in 2019).[18]

Hore returned to the Kennet after his reinstatement and found it in an extremely poor condition after a few years of neglect.[18] He approached Lady Forbes, widow of one of the navigation's proprietors, who began taking an interest in the navigation's management and ensured that funds were available for necessary repairs. Hore oversaw this work, and by 1740 had established a carpentry at the navigation's centre point in Aldermaston. With the restored navigation, tolls increased to £2,000 per year (equivalent to £291,885 in 2019), with an annual porterage of 10,000 tons.[18]

Hore retired from his role as surveyor on the Kennet in 1761.[1] In 1767, his locks were widened to cater for the larger "Newbury" barges that carried substantial cargoes from Newbury to the Thames.[15][20]

In March 1725, two years after the opening of the Kennet Navigation, Hore was employed by Ralph Allen in the direction and chief management of the construction of the Avon Navigation near Bristol.[18] He was brought in to implement the 1712 act obtained by the Bath Corporation, which allowed provision for a navigable waterway from Hanham to Bath. Hore was given a salary of approximately £9 per week (equivalent to £1,418 in 2019), and was given budget to employ an assistant—Mr Downs—on a £1 weekly salary (equivalent to £150 in 2019) with responsibility over the project in Hore's absence. Hore's salary on the Avon project was also to cover expenses, which may explain the significant increase from his remuneration on the Kennet Navigation—Hore possibly wanted to avoid a similar situation as arose over personal expenses in the years before beginning the Avon Navigation.[21] In addition to Downs, Hore's chief mason, Edward Marchant, was paid £2 per week (equivalent to £315 in 2019) pro rata.[18]

Upon surveying the waterway, Hore found that the gradient was less than half that of the Kennet in Berkshire, leading to far fewer engineering problems. Numerous mills were operational on the stretch of the Avon, leading Hore to require locks to overcome the change in water level resulting from the mill weirs. Five locks were built to overcome changes of no more than 6 feet (1.8 m), although his requirement of a 600-yard (550 m) cutting near Weston meant that Weston Lock needed a depth of around 9 feet (2.7 m).

Building commenced in mid-1725. Hore experienced a few set-backs, including the compulsory purchase of land at Sydenham Mede near Keynsham, and documentation suggests he was still involved in engineering on the Kennet at Newbury. Upon construction of Keynsham Lock, flooding caused further delays, much to the annoyance of the navigation committee. As a result of this, proprietors Thomas Warr Attwood, Ralph Allen and alderman Francis Bave wrote to Hore, threatening to give more autonomy to Marchant should Hore not expedite his work:

The Water breaks in so fast upon the Low part of our Work at Keynsham that there is an absolute Necessity for the screw or some other Engine to be Erected at that Place. Mr Downs's letter will acquaint you with the Draught of the Three Common Pumps that are now upon that Place wth his Sentements of the additionall helps that is Necessary for the Draining of the Work, but that no disapointment may retard an affair of this Consequence we have sent Mr Marchant on Purpose with this letter who will acquaint you fully with the manner of the obstruction, advise with and be directed by you for the Imediat removall of it, and as the works in that Cut are now in considerable forwardness we must desire that you will soon be with us to direct ye finishing of that and Hanhams Lock, but if your affairs upon the Newbury River will not admit of your speedy attendance here, we must desire you to give Mr Marchant full directions for his Proceeding til we can have your Personal Assistance that our Undertaking may not Suffer by any Unnecessary delays.

— Thomas Warr Attwood, Ralph Allen and Francis Bave, 18 September 1725[22]

The committee also urged Hore to purchase screw engines from the Kennet project, justifying that "this appears to us the Speediest Method" to complete lock work.[22] Hore subsequently came up against problems, mainly with landowners, but also with the committee themselves, who in November 1725 asked Hore to reconsider the location of wharves on the navigation, though probably at the behest of the landowners.[22] Within a week, the committee order the project to be put on hold to allow Hore and Downs to submit detailed plans of the canal between Swineford and Bath.[22] On resuming the project, Hore did not come across any major set-backs and construction finished with the completion of a quay in Bath in December 1727;[18] the navigation construction cost £12,000 (equivalent to £1,798,000 in 2019).[18] The navigation did not include a tow path, however, as disputes arose over land ownership.[23]

Hore's locks on the Avon totalled six, with slightly smaller dimensions than those on the Kennet. However, they were all masonry-walled,[24] and catered for larger cargoes than those on the Kennet—closer to 140 tons. After the completion of the quay at Bath in 1729, tolls on the navigation began averaging just less than £1,000 per year (equivalent to £161,000 in 2019).[18]

In similar circumstances to becoming employed on the Avon Navigation, Hore was approached by a Gloucestershire organistation with a view to linking Stroud to the River Severn by making the River Frome navigable. Hore deemed the natural waterway unsuitable for such a project, instead designing a twelve-lock, 8.5-mile (13.7 km) canal from Framilode to Wallbridge.[18] The canal, which would have catered for 60-ton boats, would cost £20,000 (equivalent to £2,845,000 in 2019) to construct.[18] A bill was put before Parliament, which was supplemented by evidence presented to the Commons and the Lords by Hore in February and March 1730. Although an Act was passed in May 1730, it was met by opposition by a number of millers on the river who would have seen changes in water powering their mills. These millers were given rights over the water usage, which would effectively allow them to shut the navigation for two months per year.[25] This, coupled with the fact that the Act specified for the river to be made navigable (and not for the construction of a separate canal), meant that Hore's recommendations were never realised.[18]

Hore surveyed the River Chelmer in 1733 with the intention of creating another river navigation. He proposed two solutions to providing a 14-mile (23 km) link between Maldon and Chelmsford—making the river navigable and cutting a new canal. Although the cost of creating a new canal—£12,800 (equivalent to £2,141,000 in 2019)—was 30% more expensive than working on the river, Hore strongly recommended its implementation.[18] Much like his work on the Stroudwater, plans were not adopted.[18]

In 1833, Hore worked on the ornamental canal and basin (highlighted) at Shaw House in his hometown of Newbury

In 1733, Hore was appointed by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, to work on the grounds at his Shaw House estate in Newbury. The garden already featured two ornamental canals, fed from the nearby River Lambourn, though the Duke employed Hore to combine the canals, enlarging them into a single canal with a cascade.[26] Hore's work here also included a 147-foot (45 m) semi-circular canal on the north side of the river.[2]