Editing Kennet and Avon Canal (section)

===Operation===
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Kennet and Avon Canal Company and River Kennet Navigation Act 1813
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to enable the Kennet and Avon Canal Company to raise a further Sum of Money to purchase the Shares of the River Kennet Navigation; and to amend the several Acts passed for making the said Canal.
| year                  = 1813
| citation              = [[53 Geo. 3]]. c. cxix
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 3 June 1813
| 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/Geo3/53/119/pdfs/ukla_18130119_en.pdf
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
[[File:Kennet and Avon Canal Navigation 1808.jpg|thumb|Kennet and Avon Canal Navigation share (ticket), issued 2 April 1808]]

In 1801, trade along the canal commenced; goods initially had to be unloaded at Foxhangers at the bottom of what is now Caen Hill Locks, transported up the hill by a horse-drawn tramway, and reloaded into barges at the top. When the flight of locks opened in 1810, allowing the same vessel to navigate the entire canal, the rate of carriage per ton from London to Bath was £2&nbsp;9s&nbsp;6d. This compared well with carriage by road, which cost £6&nbsp;3s to £7 per [[long ton|ton]], and trade on the canal flourished. In 1812, the Kennet and Avon Canal Company bought the Kennet Navigation, which stretched from Newbury to the junction with the Thames at Kennet Mouth, near Reading. The purchase from Frederick Page cost £100,000, of which £70,000 was paid in cash with the balance paid back gradually. The purchase was authorised by the '''{{visible anchor|Kennet and Avon Canal Company and River Kennet Navigation Act 1813}}''' ([[53 Geo. 3]]. c. cxix), which enabled the company to raise the funds through the sale of 5,500 shares at £24 each. At the same time work was undertaken to improve the Avon Navigation, from Bristol to Bath, with the Kennet and Avon Canal Company purchasing a majority shareholding in the Avon Navigation in 1816.<ref name=clew79to80>{{harvnb| Clew |1985 |pp=79–80}}</ref>

By 1818, seventy 60-ton barges were working on the canal, the majority of the tonnage being coal and stone travelling via the [[Somerset Coal Canal]].<ref name=clew82>{{harvnb |Clew |1985 |p=82}}</ref> The journey from Bath to Newbury took an average of three and a half days. By 1832, 300,000&nbsp;tons of freight was being carried each year and, between 1825 and 1834, the company had an annual revenue of around £45,000.<ref name=russell7to10/>

A link connecting the Kennet & Avon to the [[Basingstoke Canal]] at its Basingstoke terminus was proposed three times between 1793 and 1810, and a route was even surveyed by [[John Rennie the Younger]] in 1824, but following opposition from landowners was eventually rejected by Parliament in 1824 and 1826.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://canalrivertrustwaterfront.org.uk/heritage/feature-pos3-imagined-canals/|title = Imagined canals|date = 5 July 2018}}</ref>