Lady Teal is off CRT water and on the Bridgewater Canal, owned by Peel Holdings, currently at Worsley. I have never been able to discover why it and the Manchester Ship Canal were not nationalised with all the rest, maybe it was something to do with it being part of the mining network, but then they were all nationalised too!!
Feted as being the first of the modern commercial canals, it opened in 1761 and set off the canal mania era. Whilst it was the first of the single cut canals not following an existing watercourse an argument could be made that the Sankey, St. Helens Canal, was the one that proved the point.
The Sankey canal opened in in 1757 and was the only canal project not to have anyone object to it. Whilst not a new cut canal, it followed the line of the Sankey Brooke, it was built as though it was a new canal. Its act of parliament said “for making navigable the River or Brook called Sankey Brook, and Three several Branches thereof from the River Mersey below Sankey Bridges, up to Boardman’s Stone Bridge on the South Branch, to Gerrard’s Bridge on the Middle Branch, and to Penny Bridge on the North Branch, all in the county palatine of Lancaster” (Thank you Wikipedia)
But whatever the rights or wrongs of that Worlsey is a lovely spot with some super architecture and now the addition of some lovely sculptures.
