Although people have been building canals in England since Roman times, these were usually shortcuts designed to join navigable rivers. The earliest was the Fosse Dyke, built by the Romans in about AD 120 to link the River Trent, at Lincoln, with the Witham. The first modern canal, running independently of any river, was built in 1759-65, by the Duke of Bridgewater.

At the age of 17, the Duke had gone on the ''Grand Tour'' of Europe, which was part of every nobleman's education. While others marvelled at classical ruins, what most impressed the Duke was a French canal. Built between 1666 and 1681, the Canal du Midi linked the River Garonne, at Toulouse, with the Mediterranean port of Sete. This allowed goods to be transported from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, avoiding the long and dangerous sea passage past Gibraltar. 

The Duke (1736-1803) owned large coal mines at Worsley, near Manchester, then a market town with a small cotton industry. He realised that Manchester and neighbouring Salford needed his coal. The problem was the high cost of transportation by slow-moving horse and cart. Inspired by what he had seen in France, the Duke decided to build a six-mile canal linking Worsley with Manchester.

In 1759, the Duke secured an Act of Parliament, giving him permission to set up a canal company, to raise funds by selling shares. The money was used to buy the land and to pay for building costs. The project was overseen by the Duke's agent, John Gilbert, who came up with the idea of driving the canal deep into the Duke's mines. This would allow barges to be loaded close to the coal face and could also be used to drain the mines.

"A canal in the air"

Gilbert worked with a brilliant self-taught engineer, James "Schemer" Brindley (1716-72), who designed and built the canal. It included a 200-yard-long aqueduct, carrying the canal over the River Irwell at Barton. When it opened, the Barton Aqueduct amazed everyone who saw it. One observer wrote that Brindley "has erected a navigable canal in the air; for it is as high as the tops of the trees. Whilst I was surveying it with a mixture of wonder and delight, four barges passed by me... dragged by two horses, who went on the terrace of the canal, whereon, I must own, I durst hardly venture to walk, as I almost trembled to behold the large river Irwell underneath me."

Cheaper coal

While a horse pulling a cart on a level road could only manage a load of one to two tons, a horse pulling a boat could move 30 tons. As a result of cheaper transport costs, within a year of the canal's opening, the price of coal in Manchester fell by two-thirds. This freed the mill owners from their reliance on water power, and allowed many more factories to be built. Cheap coal also heated Mancunian homes, so the Canal Duke was a popular figure in Manchester. On one occasion, when he arrived in the town by coach, local people unhitched his tired horses, and insisted on pulling his carriage all the way to Worsley!

Worsley too prospered thanks to the Bridgewater Canal. As more coal was extracted, the Duke extended his underground canal system until it stretched for 42 miles. In 1773, pottery owner Josiah Wedgwood described Worsley as having "the appearance of a considerable Seaport town. His Grace has built some hundreds of houses, and is every year adding considerably to their number." Read more about Josaiah Wedgwood here.

The success of the Duke's scheme inspired other mine owners and industrialists to build their own canals, including the Trent and Mersey, the Staffordshire and Worcester, and the Oxford Canal, all constructed in the 1770s.

Charles Hadfield, the leading historian of the Canal Age, described the canals' impact:

Cheap and regular carriage of coal and raw materials meant that steam engines could be fed, factories supplied, factory workers warmed, and mines served....it meant lime to improve the soil; timber, stone and slates for housing and road-making materials, and a means of moving corn....With canal boats instead of lumbering many-horsed waggons, with steam instead of water power, what could not Britain achieve? Indeed, there would be an industrial revolution.

The Canal Age, 1968