Company of Proprietors of the Stroudwater Navigation

The Company of Proprietors
of the Stroudwater Navigation

About Us

The Company of proprietors of the Stroudwater Navigation was set up by Act of Parliament and the original Act and a number of ones that follow it for the constitution of the Company. The last Act was passed in 1954 and this relieved the Company of its obligations to keep the canal open for public navigation. Most of its other powers were left intact.

The Company is still owned by current owners of the original 200 shares that were issued back in the 18th century and is run by volunteer Directors elected from their number. Just over half of the shares are owned by a separate Trust set up in the 1950s to ensure that the Company would be run for the benefit of local people (click here for Trustee Page).

In 2005, the Company leased the Canal to British Waterways for 999 years; British Waterways (BW) at that time intended to restore the canal and run it as part of the national waterway network.

BW decided to pull out of the Cotswold Canals Partnership and relinquished its role as lead partner in February 2008. Stroud District Council adopted the role of lead partner at the end of 2008 and a new charitable organisation, the Stroud Valleys Canal Company, was formed to take over the BW lease of the Stroudwater Navigation and to take on the ownership of the Thames & Severn Canal between Stroud and the railway crossing just east of Brimscombe Port. The CoPSN together with Stroud District Council, Gloucestershire County Council and the Cotswold Canals Trust are the four controlling members of SVCC which, in addition to controlling the land, will assume the role of Navigation Authority.

Licenses therefore are available from SVCC but the CoPSN does maintain a Boat Register for boat owners. This does not carry any navigation or mooring rights with it but enables people to have their boats entered with the oldest canal company still in existence and display their registered number on the side of their boat. See the Boat Registration page for more details.

The company's registered address is: Unit 3, Ambrose House, Meteor Court, Barnett Way, Barnwood, Glos. GL4 3GG