CHAPTER XVI 



THE CANAL ERA 



THE initiation, in the middle of the eighteenth century, of 

 the British Canal Era was primarily due, not to any examples 

 in canal construction already offered by the ancients, by 

 the Chinese and other Eastern nations, or by Continental 

 countries, but to a natural transition from certain forms of 

 river improvement already carried out in England. 



I have shown, on page 131, that when, in 1661, Sir William 

 Sandys obtained his Act for making the Wye and the Lugg 

 navigable, he secured powers, not only for the usual deepening 

 and embanking of the river itself, but for cutting new channels 

 where these might be of advantage, in order to avoid windings 

 of the stream or lengths thereof which offered exceptional 

 difficulties to navigation. In proportion as river improve- 

 ment increased, the adoption of these " side cuts," as they 

 were called, with pound-locks to guarantee their water 

 supply, was more and more resorted to, and they became 

 one of the most important of the measures by which it was 

 sought to overcome the difficulties that river navigation so 

 often presented. 



In 1755 the Corporation of Liverpool and a number of 

 merchants of that port obtained Parliamentary powers to 

 deepen three streams flowing from the St. Helens coal fields 

 and combining to form the Sankey Brook, which drains into 

 the Mersey at a point two miles below Warrington. The 

 promoters sought, by making the Sankey Brook navigable, 

 to bring Liverpool into direct communication with the twelve 

 or fourteen rich beds of coal existing in the St. Helens district 

 of Lancashire, and thus to gain a great advantage for their 

 town. 



For many generations the fuel consumed at Liverpool 

 consisted mainly of peat, or turf, of which there were great 

 quantities in Lancashire. At one time, says Baines, in his 



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