David, well done! I have travelled this are for years and never realised there was a canal there! Thank you, I shall now explore with knowledge!

Ex-Pat Sotonian living in Ausrralia...I grew up in Southampton in the 50s 60s and 70s, always good to read about and see the old town, thanks David 🙂 liked and subscribed 👋👍

Fascinating stuff. All those years walking along these streets and not knowing what was underneath !! Many thanks for sharing 👍

Very interesting video, i have lived in southampton all my life and was unaware of all this canals routes, seen canal walk many times and now can imagine the path it had taken, Great video.

I find this sort of thing very interesting anyway, but particularly love the unique, droll, unassuming presentation of this and associated civil engineering history. Very watchable; even for those who would otherwise be dis-interested in these topics. Keep up the good work!

Ahh ha. At last, we have found a channel covering stuff we love to explore too!! Subscribed.

Error on your map around Redbridge Roundabout, it did not skirt around the Roundabout it went thought it, the popular trees mark out the side of the canal, I can remember where the canal was, before they turned the Mono Redbridge road into dual carriageway, and put in the roundabout which came before the flyovers, There was a dip in the ground were the canal ran, between Millbrook Roundabout and Town a lot of the canal never got built only sections of it did, The canal never ran under Gover Rd, but between the footpath you walk and the front gardens of the bungalows ant the bottom of Gover Rd near Nine Elms Rail gate, it branched off and went behind the Anchor Pub to a canal dock. The flat subsidence was more likely cause by the number of Marsh Creeks and streams and not the canal, the whole of that area 400 to 500 years ago was reeds and marshes, the oldest building in that part of Redbridge is the Ship Hotel/Inn, originally built in the 1600s when there was a mud dry dock close by and used for the ship builders. This was not the first canal, the original canal was for sailing barges, that sailed up the River Blackwater up to the cooling ponds where they made gunpowder at this point of time, there were 3 rivers Totton side was the Blackwaters and on Redbridge side was the Test and the one in the middle was the Grayling stream, then they built the 5 arch pack and pass bridge followed by the causeway out of Totton, the Blackwaters were diverted to the Grayling and a single arch regency bridge was built to allow for the barges to sail up to the cooling ponds and a link between Black waters and Test dug out to allow Blackwater barges to connect to the Andover Canal

Highly interesting film. I had no Idea that a canal existed across Southampton , or of the many associated problems that were connected with it. I've always known about the Redbridge to Andover canal, but that was the extent of my knowledge.

Brilliant and very informative video for Southampton mate 😊 I was intrigued and love my home city, we’ve got loads of history. Keep up the content mush because it’s incredible 🤝🏻

Very enjoyable documentary. I have a photo of a map from 1791 that shows the original planned route of the canal. The tunnel was supposed to go under the current day Boots and Primark. But in the end they built it 500m to the north.

Excellent! Well done.

Well done, I can see a lot of hard work went into that!

Excellent, thank you. Showing the canal route over current computer generated images explains so much more than just trying to line up old paper maps. If you haven't already, any chance of a similar video regarding the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton railway in Southampton? There are a couple of extant clues if you know where to look!

Excellent film.

I love how you can still see the top of the canal arch at God House. Also, I wonder if they’ll find anything when they start work at the old gas works in Northam. Great video

Very enjoyable video. Look forward to your next KZfaq production.

very interesting david l was walking round southampton today with friends and wondered where the canal went thank you for your great video explaining this.

A correction on the 2009 railway tunnel alterations was not due to freight trains hitting the walls but the size of the containers on the trains from Maritime terminal trains, as the size of shipping containers were now a standard 9 foot 6 inches they were to large for normal wagons so Freightliner had what were known as Pocket wagons on smaller wheels with the 9'6 containers slung in a pocket just off the rail height since the mid 1990's, So to allow the now larger containers to be placed on any container wagons all bridges and tunnels were raised from Southampton to Reading both via Winchester and Laverstock in Salisbury to Basingstoke via Andover to allow freightliner trains to travel with any container on any container wagons via both routes but the tunnel floor was lowered to allow the new clearances. this was done over 2 weeks that Christmas. Great video otherwise, I worked for SWT when they had the franchise for passenger trains in Southampton.

All very interesting! Keep exploring!

Hello a great video, not sure if anyone has asked the scrap yard or boat repairers in Northam if someone could have a look at the only remains left of the canal as it joins the Itchen?

Outside “The Anchor” at Redbridge there’s some sort of narrow lock entrance. Have always wondered what it is. As you follow the railway north you can find abandoned sections of the canal off the Test Way by the way - some with water near Nursling in Winter and alongside Lee Lane (this has been my Totton to Winchester cycling route for 30+ years 🤣)

Excellent stuff. There's nothing quite as good as an actual on-the-ground demonstration to really bring things to life. The backwards walking was fairly perilous. But, personally, I would have preferred a few dangerously wobbly POV handlebar shots in keeping with your other vids! 😁