BRITAIN’S WATERWAYS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3809, 16 September 1936, Page 6

BRITAIN’S WATERWAYS

DUE TO BROKEN LOVE MATCH To a broken love match England owes the beginning of its fast network of waterways. The promoter of the first canal was Francis Egerton third and last Duke of Bridgewater, born on May 21st, 1736, says a Reynold’s Correspondent. When the Duke came of age, he was engaged to Elizabeth, Duchess of Hamilton, one of two sisters who were famous society beauties. Elizabeth’s sister, as Lady Coventry, acquired a rather scandalous reputation, and Francis Egerton requested his fiancee to give up all communication with her sister. Engagement Ended She refused and in disgust he broke off the engagement and retired to Worsley Hall, there to concentrate on the development of his estates, where the biggest problem was to convey coal from the Worsley mines more cheaply to Manchester. The famous Btridgewater Canal, from Longford Bridge to Runcorn, connecting Manchester and Liverpool, by which he is best remembered, was completed by the Duke on the last day of 1772. Many things have happened since then, but nothing has been more significant in the long story that starts with ancient irrigation canals and still continues with vast new ship canals. Before carrying out the ambitious scheme of the Manchester-Liverpool canal? the Duke had conceived the idea of transporting coal from his mines at Worsley to Manchester by means of a canal to Salford and run several miles alongside the Irwell. The young Duke (he was only 23) at this stage consulted the engineer, James Brindley, who persuaded him

to construct a canal from Worsley to Manchester that should go over the River Irwell at Barton by an aqueduct, the first of its kind in this country. Others ridiculed the idea, but the Duke backed it and got it sanctioned by Act of Parliament. The first barge loaned with coal from Worsley went over the Barton Bridge on July 17, 1761, inaugurating a highly successful service. Public Interest in it caused people to travel to see the canal from all parts of the country. Not only was it the first important navagation canal in this country, but it was the first one that was independent of any natural waterway throughout its whole length. The Duke found he could sell his coal in Manchester at half its former price, and other traffic on the canal helped to make it highly profitable. This was fortunate for the Duke, who had to mortgage it for £ 25,000 to Child’s, the London bankers, to carry on with the much more extensive Manchester-Liverpool canal. This involved compensating all the landowners through whose estates the canal had to pass. There was also fierce opposition in Parliament before the King’s assent to the scheme was obtained in 1762. Again, the success of the canal was instantaneous and soon the Duke was promoting the Grand Trunk Navigation, a concern involving numerous other inland waterways. OPPOSED TWO YEARS There was always reactionary opposition to such work, however, although it progressed to the stage of the great ship canals. The Manchester Ship Canal, for example, connecting Manchester with the Mersey estuary, was only authorised by Parliament in 1885, after two years of bitter opposition, mainly from Liverpool, and the then short-sighted railway interests. The principal promoter of canals had died in 1803 very wealthy. Although he had spent some £ 220,000 on his own canals, the revenue they yielded eventually amounted to £ 80,000 a year.