426 



THE GRAND TRUNK CANAL. 



v. 



Cheshire. Considerable quantities of clay were also 

 conveyed in boats from Bristol, up the Severn, to 

 Bridgenorth and Bewdley. From these various points 

 the materials were conveyed by land-carriage, mostly 

 on the backs of horses, to the towns in the Potteries, 

 where they were worked up into earthenware and 

 china. The manufactured articles were returned for 

 export in the same rude way. Large crates of pot-waiv 

 were slung across horses' backs, and thus conveyed to 

 their respective ports, not only at great risk of breakage 

 and pilferage, but also at a heavy cost. The expense of 

 carriage was not less than a shilling a ton per mile, and 

 the lowest charge was eight shillings the ton for ten 

 miles. Besides, the navigation of the rivers above men- 

 tioned was most uncertain, arising from floods in winter 

 and droughts in summer. The effect was, to prevent 

 the expansion of the earthenware manufacture, and very 

 greatly to restrict the distribution of the lower-priced 

 articles in common use."^ 



^The same difficulty and cost of transport checked the 

 growth of nearly all other branches of industry, and 

 made living both dear and uncomfortable. The indis- 

 pensable article of salt, manufactured at the Cheshire 

 Wiches, was in like manner carried on horses' backs all 

 over the country, and reached almost a fabulous price 

 by the time it was sold two or three counties off. About 

 a hundred and fifty pack-horses, in gangs, were also 

 occupied in going weekly from Manchester, through 

 Stafford, to Bewdley and Bridgenorth, loaded with 

 woollen and cotton cloth for exportation ; l but the cost 



1 In a curious book published in 

 1766, by Richard Whitworth, of 

 Balcham Grange, Staffordshire, after- 

 wards Sir Richard Whitworth, mem- 

 ber for Stafford, entitled 'The Ad- 

 vantages of Inland Navigation,' he 

 points to the various kinds of traffic 

 that might l>e expected to come upon 

 the canal then proposed by him, and 



amongst other items he enumerates the 

 following : " There are three pot- 

 waggons go from Newcastle and Burs- 

 lem weekly, through Eccleshall and 

 Newport to Bridgenorth, and carry 

 about eight tons of pot-ware every 

 week, at 31. per ton. The same wag- 

 gons load back with ten tons of close 

 s, consist! nil of white clay, grocery, 



