Editing Thames and Medway Canal (section)

==Construction==
[[Image:1863 Strood.jpg|right|thumb|From the Strood basin (centre right), the canal disappeared almost immediately into the tunnel]]
The first practical attempt to build the canal began in 1799, when [[Ralph Dodd]] published a pamphlet and began to solicit investment for the scheme.<ref>Dodd, Ralph (1799) ''Report on the proposed Canal Navigation forming a Junction of the Rivers Thames and Medway''</ref> Dodd's plan was for a {{convert|6|mi|adj=on}} canal with locks and basins, taking two years to build and costing £24,576, part of the cost to be defrayed by selling the excavated [[chalk]] as [[agricultural lime]]. Dodd was confident that the canal would be useful to the government but would also attract commercial vessels.<ref>"[U]pon enquiry, I find the commerce that would employ this canal is immense; probably few canals in this kingdom would have greater traffic." Dodd, Ralph (1799) ''Report on the proposed Canal Navigation forming a Junction of the Rivers Thames and Medway'', quoted in Hadfield (1969), p81</ref>

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Thames and Medway Canal Act 1800
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of Great Britain
| long_title            = An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal from the River Thames, near to the Town of Gravesend, in the County of Kent, to the River Medway, at a Place called Nicholson's Ship-Yard, in the Parish of Frindsbury, in the said County; and also a certain Collateral Cut, from White Wall in the said Parish, to the said River Medway.
| year                  = 1800
| citation              = [[39 & 40 Geo. 3]]. c. xxiii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 16 May 1800
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
In 1800 the canal company received the necessary [[act of Parliament (UK)|act of Parliament]], the '''{{visible anchor|Thames and Medway Canal Act 1800}}''' ([[39 & 40 Geo. 3]]. c. xxiii), and work began at the Gravesend end. The estimated cost had now risen to £57,433.

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = {{visible anchor|Thames and Medway Canal Act 1810}}
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = 
| year                  = 1810
| citation              = [[50 Geo. 3]]. c. lxxvi
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 18 May 1810
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Geo3/50/76/pdfs/ukla_18100076_en.pdf
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
From the Gravesend basin, the canal began with a straight section aligned with [[New Tavern Fort]], Gravesend. By 1801 it ran {{convert|4|mi}} to [[Higham, Kent|Higham]]. A new engineer, [[Ralph Walker (engineer)|Ralph Walker]], arrived and announced that the whole canal would cost significantly more than the revised estimate. Work halted, and by 1804 Dodd had probably left the project. Over the next few years, Walker suggested two new routes for the Higham to Strood stretch, for which acts of Parliament{{which|date=August 2024}} were obtained and money raised. His second route was decided on but required a tunnel through the chalk hills; work on this did not start until 1819. The canal finally opened on 14 October 1824, by which time the Napoleonic wars were long over and the military need had greatly diminished. The canal had taken five acts of Parliament and cost some £260,000.<ref>{{cite book |last= Hadfield|first= Charles|title= The Canals of South and South East England|year= 1969|publisher= [[David & Charles]]|location= Newton Abbot|isbn= 0-7153-4693-8|pages= 92|chapter= Chap IV. The Thames & Medway Canal}} Hadfield claims that contemporary figures of around £350,000 are probably exaggerations.</ref>