In 1761, an artificial waterway opened. It joined a coal-mining area with the port of Manchester. This was England’s first man-made waterway, or ‘canal’. Soon the price of coal in this part of the country went down, and the owner of the Bridgewater canal became rich.

In the late 18^th century landowners and businessmen built many new canals to make money. There was no canal plan for the country, but the canals completely changed the transport of heavy goods in England. Prices of factory goods went down because transport cost less than before. One horse could now pull 50 tons on a canal boat. Before, it could pull less than one ton on a road cart. The canal network was a very important part of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, but canals had only a short life. In the mid 19^th century, the new railways became the most modern form of transport.

The men who built the canals were called ‘navvies’. They moved around country in groups from canal to canal. Ordinary people did not like the navvies, because they wore strange clothes, had no real homes, and because they often drank too much beer.

The Nottingham and Beeston Canal had two parts. It opened in 1796 and was an important six-mile link in the Trent Navigation - a system of canals and rivers which joined the Midlands with the River Humber and the port of Hull. This carried goods from inland factories to the sea. Now it is no longer a working canal. It is a place for people who like walking or fishing.

1. Why did the price of coal round Manchester decrease?