The iconic crane at the Ventiford Basin of the Stover Canal was unveiled by Dr Ruth Sewell on the 19th September 2021.
Ruth was representing The Inland Waterways Association which was the major funder of the replica crane through its South West Inland Waterways Regeneration Fund.
The two-mile long Stover Canal near Newton Abbot was built in 1792 to transport ball clay, but in 1820 a seven-mile Granite Tramway was built – with rails carved out of granite – to transport granite blocks quarried at Haytor on Dartmoor to the Ventiford Basin, the terminus of the Canal in the village of Teigngrace. At Ventiford the original crane was used to transfer the blocks, weighing up to three tonnes, from tramway wagons onto barges moored in the Basin. From Ventiford the blocks were carried down the Canal and Teign estuary to the port of Teignmouth where they were transshipped onto vessels, mostly bound for London. There the granite was used in the construction of London Bridge, the British Museum and many other notable structures and monuments.
