The Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation

Telephone: (01245) 225520

The Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation, engineered by the famous John Rennie over two hundred years ago, is unique in still being run by its original Company of Proprietors. It is a fine example of living history, meandering through rural Essex from Springfield Basin in the County Town of Chelmsford, via twelve working locks to meet the tideway at the pretty canal port of Heybridge Basin.

At Paper Mill, the Company's office is established in the old bargees' bothy, which looks across the lock to the stables, once home to hefty horses but now housing the Canal Centre and tearoom. An old wooden lighter, 'Susan', and a more recent steel barge, 'Julie', remain on the waterway as reminders of trading days that ended in the 1970s. Plenty of boats still navigate the waterway, but these days for pleasure.

You, too, can cruise the C&BN. Charter parties of up to 48 people are well catered for aboard the traditional passenger barge 'Victoria', while smaller launches run ticket trips from Paper Mill Lock at Little Baddow, and from Heybridge Basin, past Maldon to Beeleigh Falls, where short walks lead to lovely Beeleigh Abbey, and to the Museum of Power at Langford.