Few details of the canal have survived, and the main source of information about it comes from a paper submitted to the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England by Erasmus Galton, and published in 1845.

In 1811, Samuel Galton Jr., a financier from Duddeston, in Birmingham, owned 300 acres (120 ha) of peat bog in the parish of Meare, which formed part of Westhay Moor.

The section which joined the River Brue was embanked on both sides, after which there was a small lock,[6] which raised the level of the canal to allow it to cross the moor.

Between 1811 and 1842, the last year shown in Galton's table, the cost of the project was £4770 1s 10d (£4770.09), and a total of 27,540 cubic yards (21,055 m3, or approximately 33,000 tons) of soil had been moved along the canal to be deposited on the land.

It appears to have been little used from the 1850s, and it was abandoned in 1897, when the drainage authority constructed a wall across the channel, which included a tidal flap so that water could still discharge into the river at some states of the tide.

It is managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust, and as well as open water and reedbeds, it contains a fragment of acid mire, the largest to have survived in the south west of England.

The reserve covers 261 acres (106 ha) and provides habitat for many varieties of birds, which includes millions of starlings between November and January.