Disused defensive canal built during the Napoleonic Wars from 1804 and 1809 in response to the threat of invasion. Tolls were charged for civilian traffic along the road and commercial barges were charged by the load. The canal was originally 60 feet wide and 9 feet deep with an adjacent rampart (parapet and banquette), a military road and government drain on the landward side, the towpath and another adjacent drain was to seaward. At every third of a mile it was deliberately bent. These positions were defended by eighteen pounder cannons positioned on raised banks. The canal was sold off in sections in the late 19th century, but was taken over by the military in both world war I and world war II. In both wars gun emplacements were sighted in virtually the same places as the original eighteen pound cannon sites. Summary from record TQ 02 NW 20: Disused defensive canal built during the Napoleonic Wars from 1804 and 1809 in response to the threat of invasion. Tolls were charged for civilian traffic along the road and commercial barges were charged by the load. The canal was originally 60 feet wide and 9 feet deep with an adjacent rampart (parapet and banquette), a military road and government drain on the landward side, the towpath and another adjacent drain was to seaward. At every third of a mile it was deliberately bent. These positions were defended by eighteen pounder cannons positioned on raised banks. The canal was sold off in sections in the late 19th century, but was taken over by the military in both world war I and world war II. In both wars gun emplacements were sighted in virtually the same places as the original eighteen pound cannon sites. Summary from record TQ 92 NE 89: Disused defensive canal built during the Napoleonic Wars from 1804 and 1809 in response to the threat of invasion. Tolls were charged for civilian traffic along the road and commercial barges were charged by the load. The canal was originally 60 feet wide and 9 feet deep with an adjacent rampart (parapet and banquette), a military road and government drain on the landward side, the towpath and another adjacent drain was to seaward. At every third of a mile it was deliberately bent. These positions were defended by eighteen pounder cannons positioned on raised banks. The canal was sold off in sections in the late 19th century, but was taken over by the military in both world war I and world war II. In both wars gun emplacements were sighted in virtually the same places as the original eighteen pound cannon sites. Summary from record TQ 93 SE 21: Disused defensive canal built during the Napoleonic Wars from 1804 and 1809 in response to the threat of invasion. Tolls were charged for civilian traffic along the road and commercial barges were charged by the load. The canal was originally 60 feet wide and 9 feet deep with an adjacent rampart (parapet and banquette), a military road and government drain on the landward side, the towpath and another adjacent drain was to seaward. At every third of a mile it was deliberately bent. These positions were defended by eighteen pounder cannons positioned on raised banks. The canal was sold off in sections in the late 19th century, but was taken over by the military in both world war I and world war II. In both wars gun emplacements were sighted in virtually the same places as the original eighteen pound cannon sites.