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Believe it or not, the first canals were dug by the Romans in AD 120 and then were deepened and improved by Henry I in 1121. The canal system in the United Kingdom is therefore extremely old.
However, it was not until the demands of a growing industrial revolution became urgent in the middle of the eighteenth century that a generation of engineering visionaries, led by the third Duke of Bridgewater, designed and built a countrywide network of canals. The inspiration for the "Canal Duke" was the Languedoc Canal in France which had been completed in 1681.
The canals, along with the rivers, were the first means by which vast quantities of freight were transported round the countryside. Without this water network the Industrial Revolution would have taken much longer to establish itself.
The first canal boats were pulled by horses walking alongside on towpaths. The boats carried coal and raw materials to the manufacturing centres and brought out the products they made; farm produce was taken by water right into the heart of major towns and cities which meant that it was fresher and more accessible to a wider population. The canals became the Talk of the Town and many of the nobility and professional people rushed to finance them in the hopes of making a quick profit.
By the late 1830s there were over 4,000 miles of navigable inland waterways, many of them centred around Birmingham and linked to the rivers and ports elsewhere.
The ‘canal mania’ years ended with the arrival of the railways, which could carry even larger loads - and faster. Traffic on the waterways dwindled, navigation channels fell into disuse, boats and locks were left to rot, structures suffered neglect and started to crumble.
The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) recognised that the canals might benefit future generations so pressed for revitalisation. The British Waterways Board was given control of the canal network in 1962 and together with the IWA, fought for the canals to be saved and revitalised.
Years of effort by IWA, with its relentless campaigning to change policies and attitudes, prevented The Llangollen Canal, The Southern Oxford, The Leeds & Liverpool (and many others) from being abandoned and forgotten. Massive fund raising and volunteer work parties helped to restore and re-open waterways like the Southern Stratford Canal and River Avon Navigations. The popularity, accessibility and condition of our waterways as we know them today, is testimony to all that the IWA has achieved so far.
With the help from the IWA, many more miles of long derelict canals are now being brought back to life. But opportunities and threats remain ever present, much still has to be done. The IWA depends on the ongoing support of everyone who cares about our waterways heritage.
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