Stoke Bruerne is a small village near towcestor off of the A5 in between Birmingham and London on the Grand Union Canal

on that point was various land owners before 1805, unitary of them was the Saxon lord swain tidings of Azor, son of lefs, Lord of stoke, he in 1086 herd 21 manses with families of villains and borders the inwardness value of the houses was 10 shillings a year.After swain the Saxon lord died with no heirs a Norman Noble took the land , it because passed from one family to anformer(a), it acquired the physical body Bruerne from sir William de Bruerne, who was a friend of both king Richard the lion heart and his br new(prenominal) power John.De Bruerne help the manor house of stoke and too sitlehanger (shutlanger) and Aldrintone (Alderton) from William de Warenn Earl of Surrey, He was too a substantial Landowner.At the beginning of the 13th century Sir William was given the manor of Stoke Bruerne, and in 1217 he appointed the source Rector of Stoke Bruerne, named Richard de Rolf.In Stoke Bruerne the population increased from 609 plurality in 1801 to 823 sight in 1971.Pre 18 05 Stoke Bruerne was a sm all told simple Hamlet, it had a show of every setting, it had a church surrounded by thatched cottages, and thusly thither was the farms in separate areas.Most of the people who lived in that respect were farmhands and had very kickoff wages, they overly did not get hold of much if any know conductge of other villages/towns, they excessively rented in that respect houses from landowners uniform the Heskeths and the Duke of Grafton, they had poor diets and eat very puny meat, they eat any food that was being harvested at the time.They had a start protein die, and no access to medical care a tall so thee was high childry mortality (babys dieing before be fore 12 months of age) in that respect was no dentist and low life expectancy, both(prenominal) people with a large lavish garden would of kept chickens and maybe a pig, and would create excessively grown at that place own vegetables.The epithelial ductize was create for more an(prenom inal) reasons, one of which was because of transport problems, they had most roads, exactly they were mostly ungraded tracks, in that location was problems such as rain, snow and mud stopping this, in addition there were highwaymen who could rob you, and go game pikes slowed down traffic at nights, only when stoke Bruerne was close to the A5 which was later alter by Thomas Telford. and then there was the idea of transporting goods by the sea, but there was problems such as seasonal problems the likes of ice and driving rain, there as well was all year gales, it to a fault was quite expensive as boats sank, and there was piracy. in that respect was another idea of using the rivers, but thee to a fault was problems with this such as flooding and drought, tidal problems, passing game upstream was difficult, there was also upcountry piracy, and not all areas have rivers deep enough and wide enough to take a boat.The speed of the transport was varied, the horse and cart could go around 5 miles per hour, and so could the river boat, sea ships speeds varied on the enfold speed and the direction, but the epithelial duct had the most direct r extincte contradictory the horse and cart.From capital of the United Kingdom to Birmingham it was roughly century miles, which if you went at 5 MPH non-stop in the quickest route would take 20 hours, but the roads were not the most direct route so it would take yearner, and also you take to stop to give the horses breaks and to sleep, also non of the transport routes apart from the A5 which was strengthened at a later date were direct.Construction of the burrow began in 1793 and with everyplace 3,000 men cooking on it covering close to 100 miles between Brentford and Braunston, but they had poor roads and lack of instantaneous communication, this make organization very hard and barf a slap-up extend on the build of the channel, by the end of 1796 the groove had reached Blisworth from Braunston, with the 2 042 yard burrow at the Braunston summit and high embankment at Weedon and Bugbrooke then work was plannedon the long tunnel planed by jessop and bearnes to pierce the ridge on the southern facial expression of stoke Bruerne.The preliminary work of the Blisworth tunnel started in 1703 but harsh stopped in January of 1796, local word says the tunnel collapsed but theres no factual proof of this, jessop want to go for all locks which would of in tolled 29 in all, with a short summit with reservoirs, Barnes proposed a new tunnel on a different statement, he was supported with Robert Whitworth and John Barnes, the participation agreed on principle but could not sanction work until 1802.After huge economic pressure the company had to act quickly, so they build a toll road over the hill in 1797, it had good benefit but was unable too meet the demands of the avocation companys, so then Benjamin Outram was called in too make a tramway over the hill, it was a double track road 4 ft wide. The locks had been ideal and the ancillary works, the render now awaited the first step of the tunnel, heading from both ends met on 25th of February 1805 and final work was completed on 19th of ring, the official opening was on Monday 25th of March 1805, the tunnel had in fact cost 90,003 2s 4d. At 3,075 yards 2 feet, almost 30 per yard.We see in the 1844 map how Stoke Bruerne was cut in two by the new distribution channel and how the village street had been re routed from its ancient define along what is now chapel land to the car park by the school, to now going alone its present course over the new canal bridge over the top lock.There was some twists that changed at the opening of the canal, but some that did not change were buildings like the Church and the Rectory house, and all the cottages near the church there was also new buildings at the opening of the canal like the mill house and much pubs, also the pubs main entrance changed from the town side to the canal si de.While the canal was in its Golden Years stocks went up by more then ten times in forty years, in 1801 the stocks were doubled, by 1810 then stocks had then gone up by 6 times, then by 1821stocks had raised to up too 9 times more then there first value, and then they had got raised by in time more, by 1831they had gone up by 13 times, this for stoke brokers was a huge profit and brought great riches to the town and a serving more jobs, the population also had a huge raise.In 1805 the canal opened, in 1815 the Napoleonic wars were ending, in 1835 the double bridge was reinforced for the uncollectible canal to enable traffic to get by dint of easier, in 1838 the London to Birmingham railway was completed, and from there on the canal was failing in profits, economically the village got stronger and more social because of more people were living there and there was a high demand for goods as many many canal boats passed finished daily with there own separate needs, also the ne w jobs that were available were now better paid because they required a higher level of skill and they were usually very dangerous.to a fault there was better quality food as there was a higher demand, the food was now usually fresher, also there was a standoff more meat which helped to balance there diet, and there was more dairy farm products, so the health of the community improved and so did the life expectancy, and infant mortality lowered.Houses also improved, houses were now cleaner, mainly because soap was now carried by means of Stoke Bruerne, houses were also improved with slate and bricks now that they sparked through Stoke Bruerne, houses were also warmer because coal prices lowered and people became richer to sully the coal with, some houses now also started having glass in there windows, and there was now also a school pence tax which paid for the first school in Stoke Bruerne.There was not many plaints active the canal because either they could not write a form al complain or they did not have any power to put there word forward, but one person who did complain was the Rector, he complained because his garden was cut in half, he managed to get a bridge put up so that he could go collect his fish for Fridays dinner party from his pond on the other side.Many people could of complained though, because we can don that many farmers disordered all of there workers, the villagers would have been annoyed close the badly behaved navies, there would have been a circularise of noise because of the building of the canal, mud in the village, and dust in the summer, there would also of been a lot of horse muck because of the canal, and also there would have been great dangers of people falling in, also villagers were not rich enough to acquire shares so they would of not gained from the canal as the same ways as the land owners did, but ordinary villagers did not complain because local landowners treasured the canal and the villagers were too afra id they would lose there homes to complain.When the railway was built it hugely impacted the canal and the village of Stoke Bruerne, the canal mazed shares drastically from when it was planned to up to 20 years later, it also lost much of its customers, who could now not only send there goods on the train at a faster and cheaper way, but they could also could travel with there goods to ensure there safe transport and if they fancied going to confab someone or on a business trip.In 1835 the construction of the railway system started, but also at this time they do a double lock canal to help with traffic and also to encourage more canal users, in 1838 the railway opened, the London to Birmingham Line.The Railway was built as it was a lot quicker then the canal, or any other forms of transport and that it went in a straight line near the canal, the trains traveled at speeds of around 40 MPH, and they also could carry on a lot more goods then the canal, a canal carried one canal bo ats worth, which was not much, a train could have lots more carriages, it could carry as many carriages as it had the power to., a canal boat is about 72 feet by 7 feet, having the railway led to cheaper goods because the transport was cheaper so everyone(apart from the canal transporters) were gaining, either by cheaper transport or cheaper prices, also trains rarely suffered from seasonal problems like ice roads and flooding.Also it was cheaper too build the railway as the track was set by the canal and already surveyed, and also the canal could transport the equipment they needed like shale timber and sleepers, railways took paying passengers also which helped more money come in, also they had stations with waiting centers and loos, towns like Birmingham grew and got bigger because they were on the main line of the Railway, but Northampton was not on the main line so it did not grow.Some social effects were the unemployment for canal workers in the village, but some of them would have gone to the railways, especially the engineers who were greatly needed on the railways, also the navies would have gone to the railways.Railways were less labor intense so there was less jobs available for it, but people could now commute to towcestor and other big towns and cites, which meant they now would all commute to there job and incline into a commuting village.In the 20th century Stoke Bruerne got a lot more popular, it had a larger tourism attraction to it because of its turn from a small village, to a village with a major canal running through it which brought a lot more customers wishing to either stay at there Inns, eat there or only to have a break, also there was many facilities there with equipment that boatmen needed to make it through there journey, there was spare boards among other things, but all this tourism let to high traffic problems and a lot of noise for the locals who were not best pleased, there was not much place space so some local farmers ope n there palm for people to park in at a higher then average price.In summer there was a lot of litter, from the many tourists that visited Stoke Bruerne, also the pubs and shops and restaurants had higher then average prices because there was no ambition between anyone else because they were very far from any other places, and sometimes Stoke Bruerne was over crowded which made it an unpleasant place to visit sometimes.Also there was more noise because of children and there was dangers by the canal side, EG the towpath which they could of fell into if they were not careful, there was also more jobs gained by tourism, but they were seasonal and low paid, also now house prices have gone up in Stoke Bruerne because Milton Keynes and Towcestor were close by, and now nearly all the villagers are commuters.There was new transport routes made as the M1 opened in the early 1960s, and the Beaching Acts shut down the railways in the 1960s also which helped the canal slightly.In this section I am going to discuss the sources I used to help me complete my coursework.Extracts, by David Blagrove was written in 1991 and it is a plunk forary source although he would have used indigenous information in his research. I could say that he is bias as he is a canal enthusiast, I can prove this by saying that he does not deal with other modes of transport that were competition with for the canal in the midlands at the time e.g. Horse and cart on the A5 would have been the canals main competition. I am able to use other sources to prove Blagroves Evidence e.g. the 1844 map shows the rectors land split in two.The second written source is by Whittaker written in 1879, although this is a collateral source it is the earliest written source available to me and he also used primary evidence, it was the only source that contained population figures but its downside is it is a re-write and having not seen the original I am unable to find out weather or not valuable information has been lost.The Last write source I wish to discuss is written by Lawrence woods in 1975. It is a secondary source but Wood would of have had access to primary information such as marriage, death and turn out certificates and information from parish records, the biggest problem with this source is that it does not even mention the canal and really it is produced for visitors/tourists to the church.The two maps I used were dated 1844 and 1920. The 1844 map shows the layout of the canal side in Stoke Bruerne when the canal was at its busiest showing building bridges and locks. The 1920 map shows that the barge marina had been filled in, proving the canals decline as mentioned by Blagrove.Therefore I have been able to prove that the canals construction through the village of Stoke Bruerne changed the village socially, peoples jobs changed, physically, the centre of the village was no yearlong the church and financially, I can assume that living conditions and health improved and the cana l companys made large profits.