History of the Itchen Navigation
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Tunbridge in Winchester in the 1870s (Winchester City Council Museums). The Navigation is being used for boating and bathing, while children look on from the bridge.
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The Itchen Navigation was originally constructed in the late seventeenth century to carry chalk, aggregates, coal and timber.
New cuts and embankments were used to create a route that could be navigable by the barges used to transport the goods. It was an important business at the time. Locks, sluices and hatches were also built to control the water levels and manage flow to water meadows and mills adjacent to the Navigation.
The 10.5 miles of the Navigation links the historic heart of Winchester, an important market place, with the Itchen at Woodmill in Southampton, where access was gained to the Solent port and coastal traffic. It was an important trading link at the time. The arrival of the railways coincided with the end of the use of the Navigation as a trading route.
Reminders of the former use of the Navigation can still be found today. The old towpath which was used by horses to drag the barges up the river is now a public footpath. Locks, bridges and sluices still exist in varying states of repair.
As part of the Itchen Navigation Heritage Trail Project, we will be preserving some of the historic features on the Navigation, including Mansbridge Lock in Southampton, Brambridge Hatch near Otterbourne and St. Catherine’s Lock in Winchester. The preservation work will be carried out by the Inland Waterways Association with help from volunteers.
More historic photographs, paintings and engravings can be found in the image gallery.
Itchen Navigation Heritage Report
Mansbridge Lock by Terry Gould
