Early 19th century canal, White House Farm Canal, from Southey Creek to White House Farm (EHER 15905)

This canal was built in 1832 to link the River Blackwater at Southey Creek with White House Farm (EHER 38532), a distance of approximately 1.8km (1 mile). The canal was constructed by Mr J Marriage of White House Farm to move agricultural produce using 15 tonne lighters. Thames barges would have loaded at Mundon Quay to move the cargo to more distant ports, such as London or Ipswich.

A canal built in 1832 linking the River Blackwater at Southey Creek with White House Farm, a distance of approximately 1.8km. The canal was constructed by Mr J Marriage of White House Farm (EHER 38532) to move agricultural produce using 15 tonne lighters. Thames barges would have loaded at Mundon Quay to move the cargo to more distant ports, such as London or Ipswich. The entrance lock is believed to have been a smaller copy of the sea lock at Heybridge Basin and had a chamber 6m wide by 13m long, the floor being constructed of soft red bricks set on a timber raft laid on chalk. In the 1970s, part of the old canal was bought by the Anglian Water Authority to act as a drain for higher land of the estuary and a sluice was constructed destroying much of the old sea lock. The course of the canal can still be traced and traces of old wooden piling and lock basin brickwork survive. The lock basin at White House Farm is now a pond. <1> An early 19th century canal. The depression remains of what was a mile-long canal from Southey Creek to White House Farm (EHER 38532), built for private purposes in around 1820. <2> See also <3>.