Braunston Stop House, Grand Union Canal, Braunston, Northants.
Posted by: greysman
N 52° 17.303 W 001° 12.733
30U E 621937 N 5794618
Constructed in 1796 and in use until the end of the C19th to collect tolls and register passing craft.
Waymark Code: WMC0QR
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/11/2011
Views: 2
Located off the A45 between Rugby and Daventry in rural Northamptonshire, at the junction of the Oxford and Grand Union Canals, the historic village of Braunston has always been a focal point on the Midlands canal network.
The unique triangular junction there between the Oxford and Grand Union canals has two bridges carrying the tow-path over the canal. However when originally constructed by Brindley as a contour canal the junction of the canals was near where the marina is today. Improvements to the Oxford Canal in the 1830s to shorten the distance between Braunston and Birmingham resulted in realignment and moving of the junction to where it is today.
On the tow path near the Marina is The Stop House, where the boats were gauged and tolls collected by the Grand Junction (now Grand Union) Canal Company. You can still see where the canal narrows in front of the Stop House, where there used to be a stop-lock to prevent water from the Grand Junction Canal flowing into the Oxford Canal. Until recently it was the base for British Waterways, it now houses a small museum.
The plaque on the Stop House bears the following inscription:
THE STOP HOUSE BRAUNSTON
Originally constructed in 1796, this building
was used for the collection of tolls
and registration of passing craft between
the Oxford and Grand Junction Canals
up to the end of the 19th century.
It was officially reopened as a
waterway office on July 13th 1990
by the Lord Hesketh.
The whole building consists of a pair of houses and the former Canal Toll Office. Built in brick with a hipped corrugated tile roof and brick chimney stacks, it is of two storeys with a cellar and three bays. The doorways in the left and right bays have moulded wood surrounds, six-panel doors and moulded timber hoods on brackets. The central six-pane sash window have painted brick lintels, there are similar windows to the first floor. The cellar entrance has a concrete lintel on left side with a sash window in recessed brick arch above. At the 'front' there is a two-storey canted bay with sash
windows facing the canal. An extension at the rear is probably the former toll collection office. It is brick, one storey, of two bays. The doorway has a flat arched brick frame and plank door in left bay. There is a window with similar frame and old iron glazing bars to the right.
The Grand Junction Canal was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1793, and the Braunston section was complete by 1796. In 1929 it was taken over by the Grand Union Canal Company and the name was changed.