The Bridgewater Canal, commissioned by Francis Egerton,…
1761 CE
Often considered to be the first "true" canal in England, it had required the construction of an aqueduct to cross the River Irwell, one of the first of its kind.
Its success will help inspire a period of intense canal building in Britain between the 1790s and the 1810s, known as "canal mania".
It will later face intense competition from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Macclesfield Canal.
Navigable throughout its history, it is one of the few canals in Britain not to have been nationalized, and remains privately owned.
Pleasure craft now use the canal, which forms part of the Cheshire Ring network of canals.
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