Water - Canals

1. Canals are artificial channels for water, rather like man-made rivers.

2. Many canals connect to existing lakes, rivers and oceans and are used for carrying goods or people.

3. Canals became particularly popular in the Industrial Revolution to transport heavy goods and raw materials.

4. Canals were abandoned when the railways came into being and trains took over the role played by canals.

5. In 1761 the Duke of Bridgewater opened the first canal in England.

6. It transported coal, from his mine in Worsley, to Manchester.

7. Over the next thirty years, many canals were built linking major industrial centres - it was called, ‘canal mania’.

8. Canals provided the answer to moving heavy objects long distances.

9. Horse-drawn boats carried the raw materials and heavy goods much more cheaply than they could be transported by road.

10. Canals were also good for moving fragile goods, such as pottery.

11. Canals need to be flat.

12. Locks, which raise and lower the level of the water in the canal, were built to carry vessels up and down hills.

13. Locks are deep tanks of water with a set of gates at each end, that allow boats to travel between higher and lower water levels.

14. If the top gate is opened, but the bottom closed, water will pour into the lock.

15. If the top gate is closed and the bottom opened, water will pour out of the lock into the river below.

16. Large navigable aqueducts were also built to carry the canals over roads, valleys, rivers and railways.

17. Building tunnels was one of the most difficult things for canal builders.

18. Tunnels were built by marking out the straight route across a hillside and then sinking shafts.

19. Digging began in both directions, from the bottom of the shafts, and from the tunnel entrances.

20. Tunnelling was a difficult job and gunpowder was used, which in itself was dangerous.

21. Obstacles such as underground water and quicksand were often met leading to many lives being lost.

22. Towpaths from which the horses pulled the barges along were built along canals or rivers.

23. Most canals have towpaths and nowadays they are used for walking, cycling and fishing.

24. Few early tunnels had towpaths, so the horses used to be walked over the top.

25. The crew of the barges then had to ‘leg’ it through the tunnel.

26. This involved pushing with their feet on the tunnel wall or roof and walking the barge through the tunnels.

27. Now the early industrial canals have stopped carrying trade.

28. However many have been restored and are now used for pleasure boats.

29. Many cities around the world have large canal networks such as, Venice, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Birmingham.

30. Inland canals have boats built specifically for them.

31. In Britain a narrow boat can be up to 22 metres long and just over 2 metres wide.

32. Very large canals, such as the Panama and Suez Canals, still carry cargo, as do some European canals.