The canals were originally built by private enterprise, before even the days
of the first "Companies Act", and if my memory serves, they were built by
local landowners to faciltate bulk transport of minerals, fuel etc from the
source (on their land) to the growing demand of the industrial revolution.
In one case I can think of, the landowner tunneled a canal ino a local
hillside to get at limestone and coal deposits from the site of his
limekilns, and ironworks, then continued through the hill and out the other
side to link up with a canal which provided access to market for his iron.
The canals passed into public ownership in 1948 (at the same time as the
railways), and gradually became (at best) waterways for leisure or (at
worst) linear dumps which were gradually cleaned up and restored for
navigation. More recently, I heard that they are being exploited for the
extensive network of rights-of-way they have, as routes for trunk
telecommunications cabling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_British_canal_system
--
Piers
-----Original Message-----
From: olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Chuck Norcutt
Sent: 24 July 2005 19:14
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [OM] Re: #233
The UK canal system is more extensive than I thought. I have always been
struck by the difference in the treatment of the canals between the US and
other countries. The US had many canals before the advent of railroads but
these died off and lands were sold and filled in not long after the iron
horse made its debut. It's ironic that, at least in the case of the
Middlesex Canal that ran from Boston to the Merrimack River at Lowell, Mass.
<http://www.winchestermass.org/images/canal9.gif> the canal boats carried
the rails and ties to build the railroads that would eventually do them in.
So, why do UK canals still operate while in the US there are nothing but
small vestiges left? And, if anything is still operational, it's likely
part of the park system or, in a few cases, part of the government
supported inland waterway system. Did the government in the UK build
and operate these canals either from the beginning or take over operations
from private parties once railroads made canal operation unprofitable? In
the US most canals were built with private money and the system collapsed
with the advent of the railroads.
Chuck Norcutt
Simon Worby wrote:
> Found this for those really interested.
>
> http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/jim.shead/Inland-Waterways-of-England.htm
> l
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