NEW BOOKS

The First Canal Guide

 

This 172 page, A4 book, including colour illustrations, is available from Mike Clarke, and costs £20, plus £4 UK postage. Email enquiries here, or by post to:

76 Sefton Avenue, Brighouse, HD6 2NA.

This was the first English language book looking at the history of inland waterways, including those canals open and under construction in England. George III must have thought so, as he commissioned his foremost Hanoverian map maker and civil engineer, Johann Ludwig Hogrewe, to visit England and write about what he saw. The resulting book was published in German in 1780, and sold predominantly in the Hanover area.  A biography of Hogrewe, including a list of his major works, has been added.

 

Mike Clarke has not just translated Hogrewe’s book, but has looked at where George III’s knowledge of canals came from, with translations of articles on the history of inland waterways associated with the Elbe and Weser, and their effect on Britain’s northern trade route to Russia and the East. For example, shortly before he died, Cromwell was proposing to purchase the town of Wismar, on the Baltic, and build a waterway to the Elbe, so British trade could avoid Danish taxes. The Stecknitzfahrt, Europe’s first summit level canal, which dates from 1398, also came under the control of Georgian Hanover, so several articles on this have also been included, as well as ones on Napoleonic canal interests in the area.