Canal History
When walking the towpaths of England there are always reminders of the canal's history. Whether it is the rope marks on bridges or World War Two pill boxes the signs of the past remain with us. It can, however, be easy to forget that the history of the canals goes back beyond the boatmen and women posing in black and white photographs, back before the dark satanic mills and the Industrial Revolution, back to the Eighteenth Century to a world of British colonies in America, tricorn hats, and a time when the wheel barrow was cutting edge technology. The history of canal construction, their working lives and eventual decline is linked to British and World history. Colonial politics on the other side of the world affected their construction and civil wars in new nations affected their trade. These pages will try to put the history of the canals of England into historical context.
