CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF ECCLES
By
T. SWINDELLS
THE MAKING OF THE BRIDGEWATER CANAL
Francis, the third Duke of Bridgewater, has been often styled “The Great Duke,”
and surely when we compare his claims to the title with those of most members of
the aristocracy, we feel that the designation is more than justified. Of the
many men who have rendered valuable service to the Manchester district few, if
any, can be said to rank higher than he
does. The third Earl of Bridgewater, Francis, was born in 1736, and nine
years later he lost his father. When twelve years of age his elder brother died,
leaving him heir to the title and family estates. At the age of twenty-two,
owing, it is said, to a disappointment in love, he left the clubland, which even
then clustered around St. James’s Street, London, and settled down at the old
hall at Worsley. Great events were progressing in English history, and the
nation was steadily strengthening the claim to be regarded as the foremost
people of the world. Abroad, the victories of Clive (particularly interesting to
Eccles people in consequence of his association with Hope Hall and the Bayley
family), Wolfe, and Hawke were extending the Empire, and were laying the
foundations of our Colonial possessions. At home, no lees valuable victories
were being achieved; and James Watt, Joseph Wedgewood, James Hargreave, Richard
Arkwright, and others were earning undying fame by their achievements.
Manchester was steadily growing in extent and importance (and the effects of its
development would be felt in Eccles), when in 1759
the young Duke obtained an Act of Parliament, which, among other things,
gave him the power to construct a canal from Worsley to Manchester; and he
immediately set to work to carry out his plans.
The
principal reason for the making of the canal was to enable the Duke to carry the
coal obtained from his pits to Manchester, where, with an increasing population
there was an increasing demand for it. That the great roads of the country were
in a deplorable condition we know from contemporary writers. Of these, perhaps,
the most important was Arthur Young, who published his “Tour through the North
of England” in 1770. Speaking of the road from Wigan to Preston, he said that he
knew not ”in the whole range of language words sufficiently expressive to
describe it.” “Let me caution all travellers who may accidentally propose to
travel this terrible country to avoid it as they would the devil; for a thousand
to one but they break their necks or their limbs by overthrows or breakings
down. They will meet with ruts which I actually measured, four feet deep, and
floating with mud only after a wet summer. What, therefore, must it be after a
winter? The only mending it in places receives is the tumbling in of some loose
stones, which serve no other purpose but jolting a carriage in the most
intolerable manner. These are not merely opinions, but facts, for I actually
passed three carte broken down, in these eighteen miles of execrable memory.”
This state of things was general in this part of the country, with the result
that the coal that sold at the Worsley pitmouth at tenpence for 280lb. was
doubled in price before it reached
the houses and workshops of Manchester, a few miles away. Therefore it was that
the making of the canal was decided upon. At Worsley the Duke made the
acquaintance of one who shares with him the honour of carrying out the scheme.
James
Brindley, the son of a poor man, was born near Buxton in 1716, and soon showed a
great amount of ingenuity in the use of tools. As a boy he made with a penknife
and odd pieces of wood a model of the machinery of a neighbouring mill, and at
thirteen was apprenticed to a millwright. Afterwards he commenced business on
his own account, and rapidly became famous for the improvements he introduced
into machine making. Lord Gower, who had a notion of making a canal connecting
the Mersey and the Trent, employed Brindley to survey the country for him; and
when the scheme was abandoned the Duke realised that Brindley was the man to
help him. The result was that the engineer, who could only just read and write,
took up his residence at Worsley Old Hall, and made what he termed his “ochilor
servey.” The result was a very considerable alteration in the Duke’s ideas. One
of these was the carrying of the canal over the river at Barton by means of an
aqueduct of stone, instead of taking it below by means of locks. The public
laughed at the idea of carrying water in the air thus; but when on July 17th,
1761, the first boat load of coals was carried safely over the aqueduct, and was
in due course unloaded at the Duke’s wharf, Knott Mill, scepticism gave way to
admiration; and for many years the achievement was regarded as one of the
wonders of England, and was visited by people from all parts of the country. It
is said that Brindley himself was so nervous as to the succese of his venture
that he could not leave his bed on the morning when the water was run into the
canal, until news was brought to him of the success of the venture. But this
achievement did not exhaust Brindley’s resources. The tunnelling of the hill at
Worsley to give access to the pits, the making of watertight embankments, the
invention of a new mortar used in his masonry, and the introduction of
mechanical contrivances at Manchester were a few of the products of his
marvellous ingenuity. In 1772 the canal was extended to Runcorn, and the Duke
had, singlehanded financially, and with the help of Brindley from an engineering
point of view, constructed a canal twenty-eight miles long, without a lock in
the whole of that distance. He afterwards bought up all the land in the
neighbourhood of Worsley which contained any coal seams, and in all spent
£170,000 in forming underground canals connecting his pits with the canal.
Needless to say, the opening of the canal was a great event in Manchester annals, and was celebrated by a general holiday. The great concourse of people in the neighbourhood of the Duke’s Quay at Knott Mill attracted a number of stockholders, and the fair thus inaugurated afterwards became popularly known as Knott Mill Fair. The new waterway was not confined to the carrying of coals, but became popular as a means of travelling. A glance at an advertisement issued in 1796 is full of interest. In it we are told that ”Passage boats will sail as follows:—From the Duke’s Quay every morning, at eight o’clock, to Altrincham, Lymm, London Bridge (near Warrington), Preston Brook, and Runcorn, and every Saturday afternoon at four o’clock.” “From the same place a boat sails every morning at ten o’clock, and half-past five every evening, from September 29th to March 25th, and at half-past four during the other months, to Barton Aqueduct and Worsley.” The fares charged were at two rates, the higher for the front part of the boats and the lower for the back part. To Stretford the fares were 6d. and 1s.; to Dunham 1s. and 1s. 6d.; to Lymm 1s. 3d. and 2s.; to Runcorn 3s. 3d. and 3s. 6d.; and to Worsley 6d. and 1s. Another announcement made in 1811 stated that “Two elegant passage boats for passengers and their luggage go alternately from Manchester to Runcorn in Cheshire, one of which leaves Castle Quay, Manchester, every morning at eight o’clock; passes Altrincham at 10 o’clock; London Bridge, near Warrington, at 1 o’clock (where coaches meet to convey passengers to Chester), and arrives at Runcorn at five o’clock in the evening.” A second boat sailed from Runcorn to Manchester at 8 o’clock each morning; and the fares charged were as previously quoted. Such were the leisurely movements of some of the travelling public a century ago, a remarkable contrast to the rush and bustle of to-day. There was a charm about it which we seem to have lost. A writer who had often used the passage boats says that the boats were fitted up with large deck cabins, and were drawn by two or three good horses, on one of which a postillion in livery was mounted, On one occasion he sailed thus to Runcorn, and says, “I never enjoyed anything of the kind better,” and then describes a delightful passage he once had on a summer evening from Bolton. The advent of the railway had a serious effect upon travelling by canal; although when Queen Victoria visited Worsley she was taken along the waterway.