Editing Gloucester and Sharpness Canal (section)

==Modern times==
In 1905 traffic exceeded one million tons for the first time.<ref name=hadfield352>Hadfield (1969), p.352</ref> Oil was added to the list of cargoes carried by the canal, with bulk oil carriers taking fuel to storage tanks sited to the south of Gloucester.<ref name=SevernTraders27 />  In 1937 the canal was navigated by the [[submarines]] {{ship|HMS|H33}} and {{ship|HMS|H49}}.<ref>Tall and Kemp (1996), p.64</ref> The canal was nationalized in 1948.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.virtualwaterways.co.uk/exhibition.php?eid=12 |title=Waterways Virtual Archive Catalogue |access-date=2007-08-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928182017/http://www.virtualwaterways.co.uk/exhibition.php?eid=12 |archive-date=2007-09-28 }}</ref> At the same time the Sharpness Dock Police which had policed the dock since 1874 were absorbed into the [[British Transport Police]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.btp.police.uk/History%20Society/Publications/History%20Society/Constituent%20Force/Canal%20Forces/Sharpness%20Dock%20Police%20%20(1874%201948).htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040614073125/http://www.btp.police.uk/History%20Society/Publications/History%20Society/Constituent%20Force/Canal%20Forces/Sharpness%20Dock%20Police%20%20%281874%201948%29.htm |archive-date=2004-06-14 |title=Sharpness Dock Police (1874–1948) |access-date=2007-08-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1955 the Board of Survey of Canals and Inland Waterways released a report that, among other things, described the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal as carrying substantial traffic and offering scope for commercial development.<ref>{{cite news|title=  Uneconomic Canals Use Of 771 Miles "Not Justified" |work=The Times  |date=21 April 1955 |page=7}}</ref>

The [[River Cam, Gloucestershire|River Cam]], which is subject to accretion due to industrial and agricultural runoff, is an important feeder for the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=54098 – Cam at Cambridge |url=https://nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/data/station/info/54098 |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=National River Flow Archive |language=en}}</ref> It was formerly navigable as the '''Cambridge Arm'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=View map: Ordnance Survey, Gloucestershire XLVIII.NE (includes: Cam; Coaley; Eastington; Frampton on Severn... - Ordnance Survey Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/101453925 |access-date=2023-03-15 |website=maps.nls.uk}}</ref> with one [[Pound lock|entrance lock]] leading to a basin and wharf at [[Cambridge, Gloucestershire|Cambridge]], the limit of navigation due to mill weirs and low bridges on the [[A38 road|Bristol to Gloucester road]]. The lock was missing and the basin abandoned by 1901.<ref>{{Cite web |title=View map: Ordnance Survey, Gloucestershire XLVIII.3 (Coaley; Eastington; Frampton on Severn; Frocester; Sli... - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/109727398 |access-date=2023-03-15 |website=maps.nls.uk}}</ref> Most of the straightened channel has survived as [[flood defence]] improvements and is potentially still navigable, but the entrance is now blocked by a very low bridge at the site of the former lock.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Song of the Paddle Forum-Gloucestershire River Cam |url=https://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/gloucestershire-river-cam-t60388.html |access-date=2023-03-15 |website=Song of the Paddle Forum |language=en-gb}}</ref>

By the mid-1980s commercial traffic had largely come to a halt, the canal being given over to pleasure cruisers with the exception of a few passages by grain barges.<ref name=SevernTraders27>Green (1999), p.27</ref> The oil trade ceased in 1985 with the closure of the petroleum depot at [[Quedgeley]].<ref name=EPT124>Paget-Tomlinson (2006), pp.124–125</ref> In order to allow the [[A430 road|A430]] Gloucester southwestern bypass to be built the canal had to be diverted.  This new cut eliminated a major problem which had plagued commercial traffic since opening: the sharp double bend in the canal.  The new section of channel was opened on 6 May 2006.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4980788.stm |title=Canal's new channel section opens |access-date=2007-08-25 |work=  BBC News| date=2006-05-06}}</ref> In January 2009 a project began to replace the Patch Bridge [[swing bridge]] with a motor-powered design instead of the former hand-cranked system.<ref>{{cite news |first=Rachel|last=Clare |title=Wardens at bird sanctuary travel by boat |url= http://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/4023101.Wardens_at_bird_sanctuary_travel_by_boat/ |work= stroud news and journal|date= 6 January 2009 |access-date=7 January 2009 }}</ref>

Today, the canal can be used by boats up to {{cvt|64|m}} in length, {{cvt|9.6|m}} in beam and {{cvt|32|m}} in height. The maximum draft is {{cvt|3.5|m}}.<ref name="IWA"/>

The canal links directly to the [[Stroudwater Navigation]] at [[Saul Junction]], the only such flat crossing between two different canal companies anywhere in the world.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Saul Junction - Stroudwater History |url=https://stroudwaterhistory.org.uk/saul-junction/ |access-date=2023-03-15 |website=stroudwaterhistory.org.uk}}</ref>

<gallery class="center">
File:Dutch Barge passing a swing bridge, on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.jpg|A motorised Dutch barge passing a [[swing bridge]] on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal
File:Gloucester and Sharpness Canal at Patch Bridge.jpg|The canal at Patch Bridge, near the [[WWT Slimbridge|Wildfowl Reserve]] at [[Slimbridge]]
File:Berkeley.and.sharpness.canal.ts.jerwood.arp.jpg|The [[Sea Cadet]] training ship TS ''John Jerwood'' passes through Patch Bridge, on its way to the [[River Severn]]
File:Gloucester and Sharpness.JPG|The canal at [[Saul Junction]]
File:G&SCanal.JPG|The canal at the entrance to Gloucester docks
</gallery>