[4] Mylne's role was taken over by James Dadford, who had originally been engaged as resident engineer on the project in 1795.

Where the Severn Railway Bridge (completed in 1879) passed over the canal, a swing section was constructed[11] to avoid restricting headroom.

In 1909, following a collapse in the bank of the river, the canal company's chief engineer A. J. Cullis called for old vessels to be run aground along the bank of the Severn, near Purton, to create a makeshift tidal erosion barrier to reinforce the narrow strip of land between the river and canal.

[13] In 1999, Paul Barnett started a privately funded research project to record the 81 vessels at the site, recognised as the largest ships' graveyard in mainland Britain.

These were built in the early 19th century when the volume of traffic on the canal made it important that all the bridges could open at night so that vessels could meet the tides at Sharpness.

Each had a living room, one bedroom, a scullery at the back and a porch with Doric columns at the front.

[21] The River Cam, which is subject to accretion due to industrial and agricultural runoff, is an important feeder for the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.

[24] Most of the straightened channel has survived as flood defence improvements and is potentially still navigable, but the entrance is now blocked by a very low bridge at the site of the former lock.

[25] By the mid-1980s commercial traffic had largely come to a halt, the canal being given over to pleasure cruisers with the exception of a few passages by grain barges.

[11] In order to allow the A430 Gloucester southwestern bypass to be built the canal had to be diverted.

This new cut eliminated a major problem which had plagued commercial traffic since opening: the sharp double bend in the canal.