A Brief History

With a main line of 127.25 miles, the Leeds and Liverpool is the longest canal in Britain. It links the seaport of Liverpool with the Aire and Calder Navigation at Leeds, forming a through route between the Irish Sea and the North Sea. Vessels 60 feet long, 14 feet wide and 3.5 feet deep can pass through it's 92 locks (91 if you use the deep lock at Appley Bridge instead of the two shallow ones), reaching a height of 487.5 feet above sea level on the summit at Foulridge. At 72 feet in length, the locks between Liverpool and Wigan are longer, as are the 2 on the branch to Leigh, where the junction with the Bridgewater Canal allows boats to reach the narrow canals of central and southern England. A second branch links the canal at Burscough with the River Ribble via the small port of Tarleton. The 7 locks here are the same size as between Wigan and Leeds, though wider boats can pass through the tidal lock at Tarleton.

In the middle of the 1700's, Yorkshire was a well established woollen manufacturing area, while Lancashire's industries were still in their infancy. Consequently it was in Yorkshire that the canal was first proposed. In the 1760's the merchants there were keen to improve the supply of lime and limestone from the Craven district. This they used to improve the fertilisation of agricultural land and to provide a mortar which allowed them to increase the size and height of buildings used for weaving. They also hoped to expand the market for their cloth by gaining access, via Liverpool, to the growing colonial markets in Africa and America. The route they chose was up the Aire valley to Gargrave, then through Padiham, Whalley and Leyland to Liverpool. They would thus have a fairly direct route to Liverpool as well as reaching the limestone country around Craven.

When the Yorkshiremen sought support in Lancashire they found that Liverpool merchants were more interested in acquiring a good supply of coal for the town from Wigan. They suggested a different route, through Wigan, Chorley, Blackburn and Burnley, joining the Yorkshiremen's line at Foulridge. The two groups fell out over this, though they eventually agreed to a compromise. The Yorkshire line was to be followed, but there was to be a link to Wigan, with work starting at each end simultaneously.

By 1777, when the canal was open from Liverpool to Wigan and from Leeds to Gargrave, the company ran out of money. Construction ceased until 1790 when the economy improved and more finance was available. By then East Lancashire was rapidly developing as an industrial area and the canal proprietors realised that there was a greater opportunity for trade around Blackburn and Burnley. The proposed line of canal was altered and when it opened throughout, in 1816, it had been constructed along the route first suggested by the Liverpool merchants. Actually, the canal was never really completed as between Johnson's Hillock and Wigan it uses the Lancaster Canal's southern section. Control of this length was assumed by the Leeds and Liverpool from 1864.