130 History of Inland Transport 



navigation. An Act (21 Jas. I., c. 32), passed in 1624, for 

 deepening the navigation of the Thames from Bercott to 

 Oxford, stated that it was designed " for the conveyance of 

 Oxford freestone by water to London, and for coal and other 

 necessaries from London to Oxford, now coming at a dear 

 rate only by land carriage, whereby the roads are becoming 

 exceedingly bad." It was further stated, in the preamble, 

 that " the said passage will be very behoveful for preserving 

 the highways leading to and from the said university and city 

 and other parts thereabouts " which, owing to " the continual 

 carriages by carts," had become dangerous for travellers in 

 winter, " and hardly to be amended or continued passable 

 without exceeding charge." In 1739 there was passed an 

 Act (14 Geo. II., c. 26), " for the betterment and more easy 

 and speedy portage " on the Medway of timber from the 

 woods of Sussex and Kent, which timber could not be " con- 

 veyed to a market but at a very large expense by reason 

 of the badness of the roads in these parts." 



Various far-seeing, patriotic and enterprising individuals 

 took a leading part in pioneering the movement in favour of 

 improved river navigation which, for a period of about 100 

 years until, that is, the advent of the canal era was to be 

 developed with much zeal and energy, though not always with 

 conspicuous success. Especially prominent among these 

 pioneers were William Sandys, Francis Mathew and Andrew 

 Yarranton ; and it is only fitting that some mention should 

 here be made of these three worthies, each of whom shared 

 the fate of so many other pioneers, in so far as he was a man 

 in advance of his time. 



Sir William Sandys, of Ombersley Court, in the county of 

 Worcester, obtained, in 1636, an Act of Parliament which 

 granted powers for making navigable the Warwickshire Avon 

 from the Severn, at Tewkesbury, to the city of Coventry, and, 

 also, the Teme, on the west side of the Severn, towards Ludlow. 

 Some of the works thus carried out are still rendering good 

 service. In 1661 he secured further Acts for making navigable 

 the rivers Wye and Lugg and the brooks running into them 

 in the counties of Hereford, Gloucester and Monmouth. Here 

 he anticipated much of what was to be done a century later 

 by Brindley, in connection with canal construction, inasmuch 

 as he obtained powers not simply to deepen the beds of|the 



