Bridgewater Canal

The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was started by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to carry coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Worsley to Manchester. Later it went from Manchester to Runcorn, and then from Worsley to Leigh. It is connected to the Manchester Ship Canal by a lock at Cornbrook; to the Rochdale Canal in Manchester; to the Trent and Mersey Canal at Preston Brook, southeast of Runcorn; and to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Leigh.

The Sankey Canal was built first, but the Bridgewater Canal became more famous and set a lot more canals going. It has an aqueduct to cross the River Irwell, and a tunnel at Worsley.

Bridgewater Canal Media

• 

  The Opening of the Bridgewater Canal A.D. 1761 by Ford Madox Brown, one of The Manchester Murals at Manchester Town Hall

• 

  Brindley's aqueduct, replaced late in the 19th century

• 

  Bridgewater Foundry at Patricroft, 1839

• 

  Borrow's Bridge across the Runcorn extension of the Bridgewater Canal

• 

  Ordnance Survey map of 1843 showing the canal crossing the River Mersey at Barfoot Bridge, Stretford

• 

  The canal at Runcorn between the factories

• 

  Extract from OS one-inch sheet 100 showing the junction between the Bridgewater Canal and the Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn, with the flight of locks, as it was in 1966

• 

  A map from 1801 showing the Bridgewater and Rochdale canals yet to be connected

• 

  The Packet House at Worsley, in 1866

• 

  Letter to the Bridgewater Canal offices concerning wives sleeping on boats, dated 11 November 1837