User:MIDI/Drafts/Buscot Wharf Canal

The Buscot Wharf Canal, also known as Buscot Pill, was a short canal connecting the River Thames to a wharf in Buscot, Oxfordshire.

History
The 220 yd canal was built shortly after the 1789 opening of the Thames and Severn Canal, which joined the Thames less than 3 mi upriver. It was established by Edward Loveden Loveden of Buscot Park, on whose land the canal was situated. Loveden was also a commissioner of the Thames and Severn Canal, and built the wharf to receive coal (as well as other goods) for the Buscot estate.

Description
The canal was approximately 12 m wide. It terminated in a basin where two wharf buildings and some wharf cottages were established.

Legacy
In 1859, Robert Tertius Campbell purchased the Buscot estate from the Loveden family, at which point the wharf was referred to as "Buscot Coal Wharf with Cottage". Campbell established a light railway around the estate, part of which served the canal basin.

By 1876 the canal was marked as "old" on Ordnance Survey maps.

In 1990, the wharf cottages were given Grade II listed status.