Canal Heritage, History and Culture

The rich history and culture of UK canals

The ‘Canal Age’, although short, was revolutionary, responsible for opening up Britain to the Industrial Revolution, much as the Internet has opened up the world in the Information Revolution. Rural people flocked to factories and mills, their life and environment, and the shape of the nation, becoming irreversibly changed. The canal builders were the first civil engineers and along with their itinerant ‘navies’, changed the landscape in a way that few had done before them. Then the Canal People drifted apart from land locked 18th and 19th century Britain, developing their own free-floating canal culture, traditions, customs, ways of work and dress.

There’s a lot of history alongside our canals too, taking you to the heart of famous cities such as Chester and Warwick, historic sites such as civil war battlefields, stately homes, castles and follies.