344 



THE BEGINNINGS OF CANALS 



The result of the popular hunger was, that a great com- 

 motion occurred, which at length broke out in open 

 outrage, and a riot took place in 1758, long after remem- 

 bered in Manchester as the " Shude Hill fight," in which 

 several lives were unhappily lost. 1 



For the same reason the supply of coals was scanty in 

 winter ; and though abundance of the article lay under- 

 ground, within a few miles of Manchester, in nearly every 

 direction, those few miles of transport, in the then state 

 of the roads, were an almost insurmountable difficulty. 

 The coals were sold at the pit mouth at so much the horse- 

 load, weighing 280 Ibs., and measuring two baskets, each 

 thirty inches by twenty, and ten inches deep ; that is, as 

 much as an average horse could carry on its back. 2 The 

 price of the coals at the pit mouth was 1(M. the horse- 

 load ; but by the time the article reached the door of the 

 consumer in Manchester, the price was usually more than 

 doubled, in consequence of the difficulty and cost of con- 

 veyance. The carriage alone amounted to about nine 

 or ten shillings the ton. There was as yet no connection 

 of the navigation of the Mersey and Irwell with any of 

 the collieries situated to the eastward of Manchester, by 

 which a supply could reach the town in boats; and 

 although the Duke's collieries were only a comparatively 

 short distance from the Irwell, the coals had to be carried 

 on horses' backs or in carts from the pits to the river to 

 be loaded, and after reaching Manchester they had again 



1 In 1715 the first London baker 

 settled in Manchester, Mr. Thomas 

 Hatfield, known by his styptic. His 

 apprentices took the mills in the 

 vicinity, and in time reduced the in- 

 habitants to the necessity of buying 

 flour of them. Monopolies at length 

 took place in consequence of these 

 changes, which, at different times, 

 produced riots ; one of which, occa- 

 sioned by a large party of country 

 j)eople coming to Manchester in order 

 to ilrstroy the mills, ended in tin; loss 

 'i rveral lives, at a fray known by 



the name of Shude Hill fight, in the 

 year 1758. Since that time until the 

 present i r !795] the demand for corn 

 and flour has been increasing to a 

 vast, amount, and new sources of sup- 

 ply have been opened from distant 

 parts by the navigations, so that 

 monopoly or scarcity cannot be appre- 

 hended. Aikin's ' Manchester.' 



2 This " load " is still used as a 

 measure of weight, though the prac- 

 tice of carrying all sorts of commodi- 

 ties on horses' hacks, in which it 

 originated, has long since ceased. 



