History of the Bridgewater Canal

‘History of the Bridgewater Canal’ by Dr Mike Nevell

The talk will cover the 21st-century archaeological research and survey of the Bridgewater Canal, much of this sparked by the 250^th anniversary of the opening of the canal in 2011. Dr Nevell will talk about the archaeological work at Worsley Delph and Worsley Green at the Salford terminus, but also survey work elsewhere along the canal from the Broadheath wharf in Altrincham, and the Bollin Aqueduct, to the canal port at Runcorn. The Bridgewater Canal was constructed to transport the Duke of Bridgewater’s coal from his mine at Worsley in Greater Manchester efficiently and cheaply to the rapidly expanding towns and cities nearby. At its peak, over 3 million tonnes of traffic used the Bridgewater Canal. Arguably the first truly man-made canal, the Bridgewater Canal was the first canal in Britain that did not follow the path of an existing river or tributary when it opened on 17th July 1761. More notably perhaps, the canal’s impact on the price of coal sparked a raft of imitators in a period of frenetic canal building between the 1790s and 1810s which would become known as ‘canal mania’. Its name is derived from Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, the canal was the Duke’s solution to the transportation issues he faced when moving coal from his mines at the Worsley Collieries to warm the hearts of the hundreds of cotton workers recently arrived in the rapidly expanding industrial town of Manchester.