The Trent and Mersey Canal

A History

Ray Shill

• Publisher: The Crowood Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781785008573
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Seeverkehr

The Trent and Mersey Canal first came into use in 1777. A vital transport link for the industries of the midlands - indeed Josiah Wedgewood of the pottery was an early supporter - it carried coal, ironstone, limestone merchandise, pottery and salt. Despite the arrival of the railways and subsequently motorways, the carriage of freight continued up until 1970. After inevitable decline, various restoration programmes have been undertaken and the waterway is now popular with boaters. A working waterway for 250 years, the need to adapt to changing transport needs has been a constant factor in this canal's history. With over 100 archive and present-day photographs, maps and plans, the book describes the need for the canal and the key personnel who were involved in its inception. Engineering and constructions of the canal and its branches are looked at in detail along with further improvements to the canal and how these boosted trade. A century of ownership by railway companies, subsequent nationalisation and later decline is discussed. The book also looks at the people who lived and worked on the canal. Finally, restoration, rejuvenation and the future of the canal is covered.

CHAPTER I

Creation of the Trent and Mersey Canal

Throughout history, events occur that can shape the future for the common good. In past times the use of water to turn a waterwheel was put to commercial advantage and gradually brought industry to the river side. Managing the water supply to the mill was part of that gradual improvement and the skills in making new water courses formed the bedrock for the construction of artificial waterways.

Eighteenth-century English engineer James Brindley worked first as a millwright before gaining skills in the management of water resources. When navigation to the West Midlands from the Trent began to be considered, the primary question was what type of scheme to pursue. Brindley favoured a navigable canal, where the supply of water could be controlled; navigation that relied on a river could be disrupted by issues of flooding and drought, and any disruption would limit trade. Even in modern times, the power of nature has continued to be potentially extremely destructive, as in the case with Storm Ciara and the damage to the Figure of Three Locks on the Calder and Hebble Navigation, in February 2020.

Early Plans

The growing demands of industry in Birmingham, the Potteries and Wolverhampton led to a pressing need to improve local transport networks. The nearest navigations were the River Severn and the River Trent. Proposals to extend those navigations were considered during the eighteenth century, when the needs of industry and merchants came to have greater influence on transport innovation. In 1755 William Taylor and John Eyes surveyed a navigation route between Liverpool and Hull at the request of a group of Liverpool merchants, and chiefly financed by a Mr Hardman. However, this scheme was overtaken by the Sankey Canal project, which drew the merchants’ support – and finance – away from the ambitious Trent and Mersey venture.

In 1758 Thomas Broade suggested a canal to link the Trent with the Mersey. Initially limited to a stretch from Stoke-on-Trent to Wilden on the Trent, it was to be about 40 miles in length, 8 yards wide and 1 yard deep, with locks to pound up the water and make it as dead as the canals in Holland.

With Broade’s plan, a canal on to Cheshire was thought to be an ‘expence too great’. A very good navigation might be made from Northwich to Lawtonwich, which was 5 miles from Burslem, where this Trent navigation might be easily brought. To link the two navigations, a new road for carriages and horses might be made from Lawton through Harecastle Vale to Burslem.

James Brindley made his first surveys in 1758 for a canal route to link Long Bridge (Longport) with Kings Mill on the Trent. His second survey was made between 13 December 1758 and 16 September 1759. The surveys were recorded in his ‘daylanded book’. The places he mentions in connection with the canal route are Newcastle (under Lyme) (13 December 1758); Lichfield (15 December 1758); Harecastle to Lichfield and Alerwas (Alrewas) Mill (10–17 May 1759); Harecastle to Ape Dale (20 May 1759). According to his book, on 2 September 1759 he ‘set out for Lichfield Survey to Tamworth’, on 8 September 1759 he ‘Surveyed for Wilden’, and on 16 September 1759 he ‘Returnd.’ The result of his labours was the proposed canals from the Trent to Long Bridge and Lichfield.

Later, with John Smeaton, Brindley came up with various improvements to this scheme to Lichfield, Tamworth and the Potteries. At the time, Brindley was working on different navigation schemes, most notably the Bridgewater Canal, which first linked the Duke of Bridgewater’s collieries at Worsley Delph with Manchester. This waterway had been the subject of change and alteration. The work was under the supervision of John Gilbert, agent for the Duke, but Brindley was employed on the canal from Worsley to Manchester that involved the crossing of the River Irwell by an aqueduct at Barton. Brindley was then associated with the extension towards the Mersey at the Hempstones, as well as the extension to the terminus at Castlefields in Manchester. There was also an intended canal from Sale Moor to Stockport, but this branch was not made.

The Bridgewater Canal was a project that aimed to create a level waterway through the creation of embankments, aqueducts and cuttings. When completed, the new waterway promised to rival the existing river navigation, the Mersey and Irwell, which served central Manchester and Salford and had provided the first water transport route from the Port of Liverpool. A variety of goods were carried up stream to Warrington and Manchester, but it was cotton, one of the pillars of the industrial revolution, that was the main contributor to the wealth of the region. Hundreds of five-and six-storey factories were built in the region around Manchester and it was the Mersey and Irwell Navigation that had given impetus to that trade. The Bridgewater promised to improve the transport of goods even more, as it would not be limited by flooding or drought, as the river could be.

Pack horse trains crossed difficult terrain moving goods across the country.

By 1765, and as work on the Bridgewater Canal towards the Hempstones proceeded from Manchester, the 1755 canal scheme to unite the River Mersey with the River Trent was revived This concept was much more than a uniting of two ports – it was a cross-country waterway with the potential of serving communities and industry along its course. Uncertain and poor road communications with the Potteries were factors that aided the argument to make the canal. Roads were generally in poor condition and the pack horse was a common means of moving goods. Roads were however being improved through the turnpike system, where tolls provided funds for maintenance and improvement.

Josiah Wedgwood

The innovations in industry that occurred in England in the eighteenth century would have been short-lived had there not been a coincident revolution in transport. As Josiah Wedgwood, potter and entrepreneur of Burslem, observed in his ‘Address to the Young Inhabitants of the Potteries’, a printed pamphlet designed to answer workers’ complaints, the infrastructure needed urgent improvement. It was getting increasingly difficult to travel by road. Strings or trains of pack horses provided the main means of moving raw materials and finished products at the time, but the routes were infested with highwaymen and robbers. At the same time, productivity was increasing and the region needed to develop better connections with the rest of th...