The 200 Years Of Britain's Longest Canal | Britain's Best Canal Journeys | Absolute History

across britain there's a hidden network of canals more than 2 000 miles long many of them cut through some of the most stunning scenery and in this series i've chosen eight canal trips the very best from the west coast of scotland to the south west of england i'm going to take part i'll be exploring their stories am i helping discovering why and how they were built a spectacular piece of engineering and looking at their impact as britain moved into the industrial age on this trip i'm exploring the leeds and liverpool canal [Music] it runs 127 miles high over the pennines and was to give the textile industry of leeds a direct route to the docks of liverpool i'll go through to tie to salt's company town come face to face with alpaca work the locks and look at the landscape towns and industries that have sprung up along the canal i'll be meeting some of the people who live work and play along its path [Music] i'm starting in leeds where in recent years the waterfront has been transformed this used to be a dingy backwater now it's an area leeds is proud of this canal took 40 years to build it could have been completed much sooner money troubles got in the way and we had to see off napoleon at waterloo but these things happen and in 1816 this great route across the pennines was up and running with the arrival of the canal leeds became one of the most important commercial centers in the country its success was largely based on the textile trade and in the city center department stores opened to meet the demand for luxury goods just a short walk from the canal stands leeds impressive county shopping arcade built in 1898. this was the place to get a suit perfectly tailored of course well very nice to meet you guys to meet you as well and this is your emporium indeed for your business you want a bit of style don't you i do when the canal was built this was a a modest woolen town and it then became glorious because of textiles and how did that work bradford woe the cloth but leeds was very much where the garments were made so you know there's names which you will have heard of like burtons yeah when it was the d mob years when the soldiers came back they called getting their suit the full monty and that was the three piece oh yes that's where it goes so you're going to show me your show i would love to thanks very much just step inside james mickelberg shop and you can walk back in time in the victorian age a chaps taylor was likely to know more about him than his wife well i would look at you and i would say you're around about a 42 chest 42 chest but something like a 42 chest that's quite good isn't it and then i look at your jacket waist and i think that might be around 42 as well uh 42. for the waist i'm solid i am you are you are solid you are a 47 oh no a hand on my heart 47 40 47 and so your waist it's obviously highly confidential the measurements you can whisper i think comfortably that's probably 40. look i'm a marksman spencer 38. anyone meant to be 13. james i'm afraid got the measure of me but i decided it didn't quite suit me i mean but whatever sort of garment you needed leeds catered for all and textiles allowed the city to flourish at the end of the 18th century the number of mills increased seven-fold and within 50 years the population had troubled today fashionable flats have taken over the old warehouses the canal brought new thinking encouraging trade in both directions yorkshire's industrialists could see immediately the advantages of bringing raw materials in and sending their textiles out they developed an industrial corridor running across the pennines siting their giant factories beside the canal a bradford war magnate built one of the biggest 25 miles outside leeds it was soltaire where 3 000 people worked for satis salt he remains a controversial figure at a works fate he looked down on his employees patronizingly i'd like to see you about me to look upon your pleasant and cheerful faces i hope you all enjoy yourselves and go home safely without accident after your day's pleasure i wish happiness health and prosperity to you all but sir titus didn't just build a factory he built a town by the canal to house his workers but nowadays should we look up to him or was he plain old-fashioned 96 year old frank senior grew up in one of the houses how very nice to see you very nice to meet you yeah he started work in the mill when he was 14. when soltaire started and it was built up everything was provided so you had houses here yeah you had your work here this was the company town wasn't it good or bad i still subscribe to the fact that he did a world of good but there are others who point out that he had a captive workforce yes and that seemed to rile a lot of people either work to the mill or you'd had it how much was it important that the canal should go right the way through the mill as we can see here very important how else could you transport bills of wool from liverpool to the west riding of yorkshire it was a lifeline yes i used to watch barges arrive with several tons of coal to watch two men unload that in one working day it was hard work what sort of people were they just navis in the men they were no different to any ordinary man in the street so some of them were skinny some of them were that's right say what you like about those victorian entrepreneurs they certainly knew how to grasp an opportunity the wool that came up the canal to solitaire was not from yorkshire it was from south america [Music] soltaire was known for manufacturing clothes from alpaca wall james roberts is an alpaca farmer his ancestors took over soltaire not long after satitus died now he returns to the band stand built by satitus to show us just how much wool you can get from these strange-looking animals hello james hello well you brought your lovely alpacas aren't they they're fantastic yeah they look just terrific don't they the whole wealth of soldier was based on alpaca wool they were living in south america that's right they were sheared over there and they actually just imported the wool um obviously it's great that nowadays we have them living here in the country and how friendly are they i wouldn't say that they're real sort of people animals they're a little bit skittish and a bit shy but um but they don't mind being stroked all right okay well there we are whoops deciding to use alpaca wall was salt's great breakthrough at the time this wall was mainly used as packing material in ships he spotted that it could be made into quality clothing is that is that saying thank you or what there's a lot here isn't there there's a lot if i was getting a really stylish jacket though made of fur yeah how much could it cost well from this amount of material anywhere from 300 to 1000 pounds the sky's your limit there we go oh that's lovely it looks a bit like bambi now doesn't it yeah no it's lovely you look really good and i forgive you for that spitting earlier you know honestly anyone wants one to spit at me i quite understand that alpacas may not be man's best friend but their wall made very good garments which will be put onto the canal boats to head off to liverpool it may look peaceful now but back then this would have been a busy highway for boats making their way to the liverpool docks but the foul ridge tunnel presented a problem it was dug through such difficult rock that it would have been too expensive to construct a towpath for a horse so once inside the tunnel men had to lie on their backs and use their legs against the walls to leg the boat through and once you were through the tunnel you weren't even halfway to liverpool it was a tough life days were long and the work arduous luckily for me it's now a quiet spot to settle down for the night i'm near fall ridge in lancashire up in the pennines now nearly halfway through the 127 mile journey from leeds to liverpool along the canal [Music] you have to be sociable on the canal it's time to make myself respectable and head out to meet the neighbors morning morning morning right so what sort of trip have you had oh we've had a bit of a nightmare actually picked a tail up onto me prop a cat i tell you he got a little bit downhearted a little bit one point i never thought i'd get it off david and denny's scofield get underway and i arranged to join up with them later to tackle the barrow ford locks [Music] there are 44 locks carrying the canal high over the penins and linking the west riding of yorkshire to the mersey docks and from there out to the world these locks at barrow ford are about 500 feet up the highest point we soon catch up with david and denise and it's time for a little light rivalry are you all right okay why does snug fit isn't it it's a bit of a competition isn't it denise you and me here we go i'm ahead now okay i think i'm winning crossing the penins proved difficult and the canal took more than 40 years to build but you can see why it's britain's longest single canal and requires dozens of locks eight aqueducts a long embankment and over one and a quarter miles of tunnel [Music] you're ahead of me again i was just a tiny bit behind i'm gonna win this time [Music] i don't know how many more this is it the last this is out yeah seven of these locks what a business is that but the canal over the penins was a great success and with the coal textile and cotton industries along its banks it was one of the few canals that could compete with the railways cargo boats were still working here well into the 20th century and there are still a few left today this is a big one isn't it what are they doing that's more what they would have looked like in the old days this is that would have been a proper working barge coming down here carrying coal salt grain and those are the boats that would fly through the canals they'd be worked 24 hours a day just so they could get quickly with their cargo where they had to be they were called fly birds morning have you caught anything a few roach only small ones yes well you got quite a bit of the day left we started in leeds we went through saltaire keithley all industrial areas and we're now coming into burnley but what's great about this canal is the way it's changing it's not a question of the old industries people putting up with a grim necessity of the canal no it's now part of the leisure industry people are not looking away from the canal putting up with it they're looking towards the canal and enjoying it it's terrific that's a nice friend you've got canals changed the map of britain they were the motorways of the age now it was easy to transport goods in bulk across the country for the first time towns like burnley could become home to new industries [Music] sixteen miles later i'm stopping at blackburn at a canalside factory where ian brown is acutely aware of the canal's importance right so you've been on this site for ages haven't you they are on both sides of the canal here in 1946 my grandfather harold and henry started the business what's nice is that you're making something of the canal absolutely i mean the canal is more than just a stretch of waterway this symbolizes here in black and the industrial revolution this is what put the great into great britain we brought in raw materials we made raw products and we sold that to the rest of the world not everyone was made rich as a result but there was more money to go around and people started to spend on all sorts of things for the home including wallpaper everybody could now brighten up their partners okay well it looks okay to me because these big things i mean this would have been just the kind of you need a canal to go on wouldn't you absolutely these are bulky items both shipping in and shipping out so traditionally they would have been moved on the canal but it stems from that amazing period after the industrial revolution absolutely yeah and the industrial revolution could only happen because of the canal that's its greatest legacy yeah and you're right alongside absolutely that's not so nice you could carry 30 tons of wallpaper on just one canal barge all along this stretch there were coal mines cotton mills foundries and ironworks it's the last leg of my journey which started in leeds a 40-mile run until i finally arrive in the docks of what became one of the greatest ports in the world at liverpool huge ships waited ready to carry yorkshire's manufactured goods around the world [Music] danny o'dear has been a skipper on the liverpool docks for 25 years hi john and what's this great building this is the tobacco warehouse this is the largest brick warehouse in the world so it's now derelict but they're going to what are they going to turn it into they're trying to develop it so it looks something like this apartments the waterfront now in in liverpool is just out of this world it's fabulous the city's changed now [Music] i had my first job in liverpool as a cub reporter on the daily post and echo and the waterfront didn't look like this so we're going into we're going into albert dartmouth yeah and i remember when it was gloomy and horrible for me coming back here after 50 years the smartening up of liverpool's waterfront is quite remarkable we take a lot of school children on board the boat now promised you others this is part of their curriculum about you know with the geography of the history and the you know the waterways the canals it's amazing to think what this would have been like say a hundred years ago oh you can only imagine with the tall ships all the cutters all tied up alongside unloading the cotton and all the stuff that came in from america [Music] the city was helped in no small measure by the leeds and liverpool canal for more than 200 years liverpool was one of the greatest seaports in the world and this is our canal the leeds and liverpool canal coming down here into the city can you imagine all the goods coming from across the world into the port and the exports the cargos coming down the canal and they can go anywhere [Music] this book lists all the imports for one year 1847 and much of it goes to the mills we've seen there's lots of cotton and wool and here alpaca wall we know where that's going to be spun at sol terre 44 800 pounds that's 20 tons in just one day january the 28th 1847. that's really good okay right off we go there isn't much trade carried on the canal today but the restored waterfront itself makes for a good day out on a boat good enough for the annual outing of the local women's institute right hello hello right so what's the main thing i've got to know you're all fabulous yeah y'all come from the wi yeah mission of ages right the stereotypical wa women does that mean i have to make jam keep your hats on does that feel with pride that view yeah it's a part of history you know we've had all wonderful ships and cruise lines that have sailed from here being all around the world all our history really stemmed from the sea we were always taken to the river taking on trips across the river as part of our heritage our youth i think it was just a natural progression that they had to to find another use for the canal yeah because each age it's changed isn't it what they they've used it for it was all about trade and transportation but now it's about enjoyment [Music] in the 1960s the cargo trade ceased on the leeds liverpool canal i started work here as a reporter and a local band were making their name in the world now 50 years on and liverpool is rocking again and the canal which helped transform the city's fortunes is flourishing once more [Music] [Applause] it's been a great experience and for me you could say it's taken me right back to where i started you

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 46,654

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history, britains canal journeys, john sergeant, liverpool, leeds, liverpool and leeds canal, british canals, history of england, absolute history

Id: aj-6kAiiqv0

Length: 21min 45sec (1305 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2020