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Narrowboats on Canals

The Basics

Francis Egerton, third Duke of Bridgewater, was the father of England’s canal system, having built the first one in the 1760s. Linking Manchester with the town of Worsley six miles away, it was designed for transporting the coal used by the cotton industry. As the canal gradually lengthened to more than 40 miles, other mine-owners and business proprietors in the industrial heartlands followed the Duke’s lead.

narrowboat silhouette
Canals were built in Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Liverpool, with all manner of materials being transported along them – stone, slates, corn and lime for the soil, as well as coal to fire the factory furnaces. The canals thus played a pivotal role in the industrial revolution.

The traditional narrowboats that were the preferred means of transport along them owed their design to the size of the lock gates that they had to pass through. Towed along by mules on the canalside paths, they became in time floating homes for their navigators. Gaily painted and equipped with a range of home comforts, they became one of the singular sights of industrial England.