Boating In Britain - Canals History

Britain’s Canals History -
Whilst Britain’s rivers had been used for transporting people and goods for hundreds of years, they have their limitations – floods, droughts, the strength of the stream, shallows etc all dictated that only certain rivers were suitable for “shipping” and even these were at the mercy of the weather. Prior to the introduction of tarmac, roads were really just cart tracks, often impassable during winter, so once the necessary engineering skills were developed in the 18th century made-made canals provided a major breakthrough in terms of transporting freight around the country.

During the early 19th century engineers such as Thomas Telford were recruited to design and construct an entire network of canals joining most of Britain’s major cities thereby facilitating the transport of freight in bulk and quantities hitherto only dreamed of, albeit rather slowly since the original canal barges were horse-drawn. This was the so-called Golden Age of canal building.

Unfortunately the  design concept for canal building in the U.K. had one major flaw – they were mainly designed only to carry barges up to seven feet wide, whereas other European countries such as France adopted a much wider gauge, thereby facilitating their use by much larger vessels. Even more unfortunately from the perspective of canals, the coming of the railways a few years later, enabling goods to be transported many times faster  spelled the death-knell for the commercial viability of canals, at least as far as Britain was concerned, and they gradually fell into disrepair until by the end of World War 11 less than a third of the original network was still navigable.

However increased leisure time, as a result of statutory holidays for all, prompted boating enthusiasts to recognise that our canals actually offered the potential for their use for recreational boating,  hence they were instrumental in founding the Inland Waterways Association. As a result by the dawn of the 21st century canals, both in Britain and in countries such as France, are enjoying a major revival as significant contributors  to “the holiday and leisure business”.

The developing use of canals for pleasure after the 2nd World War, and the formation of the Inland Waterways Association also resulted in the gradual restoration of many of Britain’s canals for leisure use during the 1970’s since when further restoration projects have been, and continue to be, funded by the Lottery Fund and other quasi-governmental initiatives.