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The growth of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal


The Leeds & Liverpool Canal was built to expand the opportunities for trade and industry following Liverpool's dramatic growth as a port city.

In the beginning...

The canal was begun in 1770 and when the section from Liverpool to Wigan opened in 1774 the canal immediately became the principal route for coal into Liverpool. It was not until 1816 that the Leeds & Liverpool Canal eventually connected the Port of Liverpool with the manufacturing towns of North East Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Coal, cloth and collars!

This was the most successful long-distance canal in Britain, used to carry a whole range of goods in both directions. The canal boats carried not only heavy goods like coal, stone, iron-ore and manure, but also cloth, nuts, farm produce, grain - even dog collars! It was even used to carry alpaca wool from Liverpool's docks to Salts Mill in Saltaire, Bradford (which is also now a World Heritage Site).

The canal supplied Liverpool with coal, for industrial and domestic use, and also for export, particularly to Ireland. This plentiful supply of coal soon attracted manufacturing industries to the canal, including chemical, glass and brick works.

Life around the canal

By the 1840s the Vauxhall area of Liverpool had a dense population of labourers working in the docks and factories along the canal. In 1847 Liverpool was overwhelmed by the arrival of Irish immigrants escaping the Potato Famine. Some 30,000 lived in the cellars of overcrowded lodging houses around the canal area. Unsanitary conditions led to frequent outbreaks of fever and diseases such as cholera, typhus and tuberculosis.

As industry expanded and pollution spread, Liverpool's wealthier residents moved away to Waterloo and Crosby.

Changing landscape

In the nineteenth century, the Linacre area was mostly fields. The continued growth of the docks and railways led to industries being built further along the canal until by the early twentieth century the landscape was transformed. Factories included tin smelting, lead works, coopers, tanneries, iron works, tar distillers, asphalt works, rubber works and the Linacre Lane Gas Works. All these works would have given the area a distinctive smell!

Last updated: 17/12/2008