0:00:00 > 0:00:04The quiet waters of the Bridgewater Canal here at Worsley,
0:00:04 > 0:00:11give us no idea of what a great engineering achievement it was to build it in the 18th century,
0:00:11 > 0:00:14or of how it revolutionised Britain
0:00:14 > 0:00:22as it made the transport of heavy goods ten times faster and more efficient than it had been before.
0:00:23 > 0:00:30My search to discover how builders and engineers have shaped Britain has brought me close to home,
0:00:30 > 0:00:38where the mid-18th century saw the building of the first canals and the birth of civil engineering.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01Canals were the arteries of the Industrial Revolution.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05They helped provide cheaper goods and raw materials
0:01:05 > 0:01:10and cut the journey time from London to Birmingham to four or five days.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15It all started here at Worsley, near where I live.
0:01:15 > 0:01:21From the mid-18th century, Britain was bursting with industry and commerce
0:01:21 > 0:01:27and a way had to be found to move raw materials to the new factories
0:01:27 > 0:01:30and to get products to the consumers.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34The answer came from Francis Egerton, the third Duke of Bridgewater,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37who had made his fortune from coal.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42Some say the Duke of Bridgewater was thwarted in love
0:01:42 > 0:01:46so he channelled all his energies into a grand plan
0:01:46 > 0:01:54to build a canal from Worsley to Manchester to get coal there for the spinning mills that were being built.
0:01:54 > 0:02:02And, of course, he engaged the services of a very clever engineer called James Brindley.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Brindley was a mining engineer with the difficult job
0:02:06 > 0:02:12of digging the Duke's mines and removing the water that flooded them.
0:02:12 > 0:02:17This gave him the right experience to build Britain's first canal.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20This is Worsley canal basin,
0:02:20 > 0:02:25and 250 years ago, it were a hive of activity around here.
0:02:25 > 0:02:32Little boats, like that one, came through the remains of this here sluice gate and out of this tunnel.
0:02:32 > 0:02:40They were loaded with coal. When they got to the basin, they off-loaded it into bigger boats for Manchester.
0:02:40 > 0:02:46This is the entrance to a labyrinth of 52 miles of hidden canal workings
0:02:46 > 0:02:51connecting the Duke of Bridgewater's coal mines to the Bridgewater Canal.
0:02:51 > 0:02:57The yellow ochre in the water comes from the coal measures and iron ore,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00and that's why the water's orange.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Work on the Bridgewater Canal started in 1759.
0:03:04 > 0:03:10It was 10½ miles in length and cost nearly £50,000.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14It was opened in 1765 and was an immediate success.
0:03:14 > 0:03:20Not only was Bridgewater able to cut the cost of his coal by half,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24but the canal itself was soon earning him £75,000 a year.
0:03:24 > 0:03:30Building a canal like this were a major engineering achievement.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34There were a lot of work that nobody could see.
0:03:34 > 0:03:41Behind the actual facing stonework, there were quite a lot of brickwork to give it bulk and weight.
0:03:41 > 0:03:48At the top, they nearly always had great big coping stones, which gave the edge of it a nice finish.
0:03:50 > 0:03:57In the bottom, to stop the water running out, there'd be 18 inches or 2 foot of puddle in the bottom.
0:03:57 > 0:04:04What it amounts to is lining the bottom of the porous ground, or the canal, with a layer of clay.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09Mr Brindley had trouble convincing the men of power in Parliament
0:04:09 > 0:04:16that you could dig a man-made river. They thought if you dug a trench, the water would run out of it.
0:04:16 > 0:04:24Apparently, he went to Parliament with a dollop of clay, made a hole in the middle and filled it with water.
0:04:24 > 0:04:31Of course, he got his way. The Canal Acts were passed, and lots of canals were built all over England.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Now, we're ready for the water.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39If we've done it right, it should stay full of water for ever.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44Now...
0:04:44 > 0:04:47Now, then. There it is!
0:04:47 > 0:04:52Full of water. Doesn't seem to be leaking. Mr Brindley would be proud.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57Mixing up enough puddle, or clay, to make a tea service
0:04:57 > 0:05:02or a parliamentary demonstration were pretty easy.
0:05:02 > 0:05:09But when you think they had to mix thousands of tons of this, some automation crept in in a small way.
0:05:09 > 0:05:14They'd drive herds of cattle down here after they'd put the clay in.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19The hooves would have a wonderful kneading effect in the clay,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22and do the required mixing for them.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27To get the Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Manchester,
0:05:27 > 0:05:32Brindley had to find a way of getting it over the River Irwell at Barton.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37He had another ingenious solution to the problems of canal engineering.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42His Barton Aqueduct, which carried boats 40ft above the river,
0:05:42 > 0:05:48was so amazing in its time, it was considered a wonder of the world.
0:05:48 > 0:05:55There's not much of it left, but I can show you what it WOULD have been like cos there's another one nearby.
0:05:55 > 0:06:03This one wasn't actually built by Brindley, but it must have been inspired by his innovations.
0:06:03 > 0:06:09It's disused now, but because of this, it's easy to see how it was built.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14There was one near me at Darcy Lever, and they actually blew the thing up.
0:06:14 > 0:06:22They had a tough time doing it. It gave me an insight into how the thing were constructed.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27They used to call it the "wooden bottoms", as it was lined with timber
0:06:27 > 0:06:33and you couldn't sink in the mud when you went swimming in it in summer!
0:06:33 > 0:06:40When they chiselled it apart to blow the arches up, they came across these unbelievable pieces of timber -
0:06:40 > 0:06:45blocks of wood about two foot square and 90ft long, all encased in clay.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49And when they uncovered it, it were almost like brand-new wood, you know.
0:06:49 > 0:06:57It's incredible when you think, 1700-odds, they're taking canals across the tops of rivers like this.
0:07:00 > 0:07:06The canal was part of a system built in the 18th and early 19th century
0:07:06 > 0:07:11to transport coal and cotton and timber to Manchester, Bury and Bolton
0:07:11 > 0:07:14and all the little places in between.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20It's exceptionally well-built for a canal.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22It's very wide, as well.
0:07:22 > 0:07:27It were actually built for boats of 14-foot-2-inch beam, you know.
0:07:27 > 0:07:33It's almost a ship. You could go down the Manchester Ship Canal with it.
0:07:33 > 0:07:40It wasn't only used for coal. It brought cotton, timber, bricks and even china clay from Cornwall.
0:07:40 > 0:07:46And, of course, they had a few packet boats which sailed at great speed
0:07:46 > 0:07:54and had the right of way over all the boats, with a postilion with a bugle. "Get out the way - we're coming."
0:07:58 > 0:08:03I know this canal very well. All my life, I've played around here.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07I've even sailed along it in a home-made boat
0:08:07 > 0:08:12made out of half a bicycle wheel, stolen slate laths and a wagon sheet,
0:08:12 > 0:08:16and tar out the cobble stones to stop it leaking.
0:08:16 > 0:08:23I've ridden my bicycle along the edge here - and I can't swim - from here to Bury, as fast as you could go.
0:08:23 > 0:08:30I have had a long and interesting relationship with this bit of canal, believe me.
0:08:30 > 0:08:38Because parts of it have been drained now, it's easy to see how well cut the stonework is.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42I'm actually walking on the bed of the canal.
0:08:42 > 0:08:49You can see the quality of the stonework, even below water level, somewhere around here.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54They didn't lessen the quality of the workmanship as they got to the base.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58But the real reason that I'm here is this.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01One terrible day in 1936,
0:09:01 > 0:09:09the canal bursted at this point, and all the coal boats went down the hill into the river Irwell. A catastrophe.
0:09:09 > 0:09:16You can see from the twisted metal that various attempts have been made to strengthen the bank,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20and it worked for nearly 150 years.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23In the end, the pressure of the water got too much.
0:09:23 > 0:09:29This place shows the sheer scale of the engineering work involved.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32One of the most ambitious projects
0:09:32 > 0:09:37was a canal across the Pennines, from Leeds to Liverpool.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42The route had been surveyed by an engineer called John Longbotham,
0:09:42 > 0:09:44between 1765 and 1767.
0:09:44 > 0:09:50Longbotham's plan had been seen and approved by Brindley,
0:09:50 > 0:09:56and Brindley got the job of chief engineer on the salary of £400pa.
0:09:56 > 0:10:04But by this time, he'd become involved with a further 363 other canal projects of some sort.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09I think his workload was too much for him - two years later, he died.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14So, Longbotham got the job.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18It was a huge undertaking. This was no ordinary canal.
0:10:18 > 0:10:24The Leeds And Liverpool Canal stretched for 127 miles
0:10:24 > 0:10:29and climbed over the Pennine Chain, the backbone of England.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33Work began in 1770, and at any one time,
0:10:33 > 0:10:40the Leeds And Liverpool Canal Company had between 200 and 500 men employed on the construction.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47It was also very dangerous.
0:10:47 > 0:10:54The records of the Canal Company are dotted with names of men who got injured and were paid compensation.
0:10:54 > 0:10:55Look...
0:10:55 > 0:11:03George Clark and Hugh Fraser received one guinea each when scaffolding fell on them in a tunnel they were doing.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08And the company paid the surgeon's bill.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11The whole enterprise was very expensive.
0:11:11 > 0:11:17It was only worth doing if it could dramatically cut transport costs.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20It immediately proved its worth
0:11:20 > 0:11:25when the first stretch, running from Bingley to Skipton, was completed.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35On Thursday 3rd April in 1773, amongst great celebration,
0:11:35 > 0:11:40two barges arrived here at Skipton and they were loaded with coal.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45This coal sold for half the price that coal sold for previously here.
0:11:45 > 0:11:51The route from Bingley to Skipton winds through very hilly terrain.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Naturally, water won't flow uphill,
0:11:54 > 0:12:02so the canal engineers had to come up with a way of making a long, flat stretch of water go up and down hill.
0:12:02 > 0:12:08The answer was the lock. There's more to lock gates than meets the eye.
0:12:08 > 0:12:15At first, you think they're just a great pair of waterproof doors. But they're not really doors.
0:12:15 > 0:12:22They have no hinges... They're almost floating, even though they're made out of great lumps of wood.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27They're finely balanced with a lump of timber that's sticking out.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31At each side, there are two semicircular grooves
0:12:31 > 0:12:36and the edge of the lock gate is timber and it's curved to that shape.
0:12:36 > 0:12:44When the pressure of water fills the lock, it pushes both radius-ed ends' edges into the grooves
0:12:44 > 0:12:47and forms a watertight seal.
0:12:47 > 0:12:53In the middle, it's angled at the correct angle for being watertight.
0:12:53 > 0:13:00They're nearly all made of oak and elm. Elm's beautiful for chucking in water and it lasting for ever.
0:13:00 > 0:13:06The best place to see how they work is the Five Rise Locks at Bingley,
0:13:06 > 0:13:11which lift the Leeds And Liverpool Canal an amazing 60ft.
0:13:11 > 0:13:17These things here are called paddles, and in the bottom of the lock gate,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21there are two sluice gates - one on each side.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26It raises the gate and lets the water out the lock into the next chamber.
0:13:26 > 0:13:32Later on, they tried making them out of iron - I suppose, an economy.
0:13:32 > 0:13:39It didn't work, cos under pressure, iron bends, and once bent, don't come back.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44The wood, which is more expensive, is a dead cert to work.
0:13:44 > 0:13:50They've got to be so tough and strong because of the bashing about they get
0:13:50 > 0:13:54by boats that are toing and froing every day.
0:13:58 > 0:14:06A system of staircase - or riser - locks, like this, is a number of locks all joined together.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10As well as allowing the canal to climb a short, steep hill,
0:14:10 > 0:14:17they're also cheaper to build than the same number of single locks because they have shared gates.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30With the completion of this first section of the canal,
0:14:30 > 0:14:37landowners along the routes soon began to see the moneymaking opportunities it brought them.
0:14:38 > 0:14:45At Skipton, Lord Thanet, who owned limestone quarries close to the castle where he lived,
0:14:45 > 0:14:51decided to construct a branch from the canal to the quarries. With a link to the canal,
0:14:51 > 0:14:58he would be able to transport his stone quickly and cheaply to the businessmen of West Yorkshire.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01This was the Springs Branch.
0:15:01 > 0:15:08It joins the canal here and runs for about a quarter of a mile, up through Skipton to the castle.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35It stops at the bottom of the cliff, right under the castle wall.
0:15:35 > 0:15:41It's beautifully peaceful here now, but 200 years ago, it was absolute bedlam.
0:15:42 > 0:15:50The limestone would be loaded into wagons and sent down the tramway, down to the castle.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55This is where the wagons pulled up on the journey from the quarry.
0:15:55 > 0:16:02The stones were tipped down chutes in between these abutments and went 100 feet down, into the boats.
0:16:02 > 0:16:09The only problem was, the drop was so high, it damaged the boats at the bottom in the canal.
0:16:09 > 0:16:16The noise, of course, of the falling stones annoyed the occupants of the castle.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21This was a nonstop operation. The bargemen would load up down below,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26carry their load down to Bingley or Leeds, then come straight back again.
0:16:26 > 0:16:33They wouldn't sleep until their barge was waiting in the queue at Springs Branch for the next load.
0:16:33 > 0:16:41Work went on here night and day. Nowadays you can only dream of what the racket must've been like.
0:16:42 > 0:16:50In the end, the inhabitants of the castle had had enough of the racket of the stones falling down the chutes
0:16:50 > 0:16:56and decided to build a bypass in the form of this magnificent inclined plane.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00Of course, what happens on an inclined plane,
0:17:00 > 0:17:06the full wagons would go down on the end of a wire rope controlled by a brake drum at the top.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11The remains of the building that it were in are still there.
0:17:11 > 0:17:17That would pull the empty wagons back up to the top to be refilled and sent back down.
0:17:17 > 0:17:24Here and there, you can still see traces of the track. The remains of one of the railway sleepers.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29Complete with peg or holding-down nail!
0:17:29 > 0:17:30Incredible!
0:17:30 > 0:17:36And over here, there's the original lighting system. Been here for a long time.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41It's a wonder nobody's nicked that.
0:17:41 > 0:17:47In fact, all along this inclined plane, you can find evidence of the railway.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52It's obviously been a two-track affair at one time.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03They would unload here at the foot of these old abutments
0:18:03 > 0:18:07and pour the stone down the chutes into the waiting barges.
0:18:07 > 0:18:14The next section, from Skipton to Burnley, took the canal over the Pennines into Lancashire.
0:18:14 > 0:18:20To get it over the highest bit, they had to build a tunnel here at Foulridge.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35It took six years to build this tunnel, under atrocious conditions.
0:18:35 > 0:18:41The rain constantly came down through the roof, dripping down, as you can see.
0:18:41 > 0:18:47I suppose, before they got the stonework in, it would be a lot worse than what it is now.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53Most of these early navvies who did the tunnelling were ex-miners.
0:18:53 > 0:18:59It weren't that important down a pit keeping everything perfectly straight.
0:18:59 > 0:19:05I think this accounts for the amount of funny doglegs there are in a lot of canal tunnels.
0:19:05 > 0:19:12They'd not quite got it in line, because the art of surveying then wasn't as good as it is now.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17First, they would walk over the top in as straight a line as they could -
0:19:17 > 0:19:23with the equivalent to a theodolite, maybe a telescope or something as simple as that -
0:19:23 > 0:19:26and mark out a series of pegs,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29and then sink a line of shafts
0:19:29 > 0:19:33down to the level where the tunnel were going to be.
0:19:33 > 0:19:40Then they'd proceed to drive headings from each end of the bottom of the shaft.
0:19:40 > 0:19:46They would have a semi-mobile winding gear, a bit like a small colliery would have.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50The debris would be raised up the shaft in a kibble,
0:19:50 > 0:19:57which is a name for a small, iron barrel. As the tunnel advanced through the mountain,
0:19:57 > 0:20:02they would dismantle it and move it up to the next shaft.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06Robert Whitworth, the engineer, reported to the canal committee
0:20:06 > 0:20:14that the wages were four times what they should have been because the original estimates were grossly out.
0:20:14 > 0:20:19They didn't reckon on the shifting sands at each end. When they got here,
0:20:19 > 0:20:27the lakes and water above were coming in constantly and creating trouble. No wonder it took six years.
0:20:28 > 0:20:35Some sections of the tunnelling were so difficult, they had to use a different method of building.
0:20:35 > 0:20:41Because the ground was so unstable, they couldn't build a conventional tunnel.
0:20:41 > 0:20:48So they had to do a thing called cut-and-cover, whereby they'd dig a great cutting through the hillside
0:20:48 > 0:20:50and then put in the centring.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53In reality it would be made of wood,
0:20:53 > 0:20:58but I've used... ex-GPO fibreglass telegraph pole.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Um...the...
0:21:00 > 0:21:04and then once the centring was in position,
0:21:04 > 0:21:10they would proceed to lay the masonry, which had been cut to shape.
0:21:10 > 0:21:16With it all being exposed to daylight, they could do a much better job
0:21:16 > 0:21:23and use much bigger stones. You would have had great difficulty putting them in a conventional tunnel.
0:21:23 > 0:21:31Squeezing them in between the rock roof and the top of the centring would have been very difficult.
0:21:31 > 0:21:38But outside here, you could even have had a crane to lift the stones and put 'em on top of the centring.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43After the last stones had been firmly cemented into position,
0:21:43 > 0:21:49they would then proceed to cover the whole lot up...very carefully, I should imagine.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51They wouldn't have chucked it around.
0:21:51 > 0:21:58They'd have been making sure that the pressure, as they filled it in, were equal on both sides,
0:21:58 > 0:22:03to squeeze the arch down onto the centring,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05which is very important.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10Lots of disasters have been had when it's not been done quite right.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16They must have literally moved thousands of tons of dirt in wheelbarrows,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20and no doubt up to their necks in mud.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24It's a credit, really, to our illustrious ancestors.
0:22:26 > 0:22:32After they'd got the masonry and the centring all buried under 30 feet of unstable ground again,
0:22:32 > 0:22:38they would then proceed to withdraw the wedges from underneath the centring,
0:22:38 > 0:22:44which would lower the centring, and then they could withdraw it.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49So they could just move it up a bit and put some more masonry on,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53and keep advancing like that through the hillside.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59As you can see, when the centring's been removed,
0:22:59 > 0:23:04you end up with rather a beautiful, smooth, strong, arched tunnel.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06There were no tunnel boring machines,
0:23:06 > 0:23:12so all the digging had to be done by hand - sheer, hard manual labour.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18The men who built the canals were professional navvies
0:23:18 > 0:23:23and followed the line of the canal and lived in great encampments.
0:23:23 > 0:23:30But they were viewed by the locals as bad news. Here, in the Canal Company records, is an account of a riot
0:23:30 > 0:23:34which happened at a place called Barrowford.
0:23:34 > 0:23:41"In 1792," it says, "a riot of a very serious nature occurred amongst the townspeople of Barrowford
0:23:41 > 0:23:46"and the workmen employed upon the canal. The fighting had to be broken up by the local militia,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49"led by a certain Captain Clayton."
0:23:49 > 0:23:53But, in spite of the odd bit of trouble like this,
0:23:53 > 0:23:58work at the Leeds end progressed at a fair rate.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03By 1796, the canal stretched all the way from Leeds to Burnley.
0:24:03 > 0:24:09At the Liverpool end, though, there were all sorts of delays and complications,
0:24:09 > 0:24:14and it took another 20 years to complete the link from Leeds.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19Boats were now able to ply their trade all the way across the Pennines
0:24:19 > 0:24:27from Leeds to Liverpool. The cost of raw materials was slashed as the cost of transport came tumbling down.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30They carried stone and brick
0:24:30 > 0:24:36to build the factories and the industrial towns that began to spring up along the banks of the canal,
0:24:36 > 0:24:43raw cotton and wool, direct from the port of Liverpool to the mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire,
0:24:43 > 0:24:47and the finished products to the consumers.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52One of the most magnificent mills was built on the banks of the canal
0:24:52 > 0:24:57here at Saltaire, by an industrialist called Titus Salt.
0:25:00 > 0:25:07Alpaca wool from the backs of S American llamas was shipped all the way to Liverpool
0:25:07 > 0:25:14and brought all the way across the Pennines, here, and loaded into the warehouse through these very doors.
0:25:14 > 0:25:20This is where it all ended up, where once there were 1,200 looms
0:25:20 > 0:25:24weaving 30,000 yards of cloth every day.
0:25:24 > 0:25:30It must've been quite noisy in here, what with the clatter of the shuttles and what have you.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35Two vertical shafts came from the engines down below with big bevel gears on top
0:25:35 > 0:25:40which drove the shaft in this long strip, down the middle of the room,
0:25:40 > 0:25:47and the belts would come out the floor to each of the looms. No wonder they were all deaf!
0:25:47 > 0:25:51A whole town was built around the mill.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56It only existed because of the canal supplying the wool.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02In its heyday, over 2,500 people worked in this mill.
0:26:02 > 0:26:09They all walked to work. They were close, in a wonderful model village built by Salt himself.
0:26:09 > 0:26:15It had a beautiful, Italian-style church, a library, a social centre.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19The only thing that wasn't here were public houses,
0:26:19 > 0:26:24because Mr Salt was a Nonconformist and didn't approve of alcohol.
0:26:24 > 0:26:31For over 150 years, it was alive with industry and activity, all along the banks of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33But not any more.
0:26:33 > 0:26:40At the Lancashire end, it were almost lined every 100 yards by a spinning mill.
0:26:40 > 0:26:47And here in Leigh, you know, I remember when I was about 15, coming along this very towpath,
0:26:47 > 0:26:53and you could see all the great steam engines that turned all these mills round.
0:26:53 > 0:26:59It's a lot different now. All the steam engines have gone. It's sad really,
0:26:59 > 0:27:04because these octagonal-shaped towers on each corner are quite ornate.
0:27:04 > 0:27:12I bet when it were first built it were beautiful, that. Yellow, terracotta and Accrington brick.
0:27:14 > 0:27:21It's very sad, when you come round here and look at all the collapsed buildings and the dereliction.
0:27:23 > 0:27:30I actually pulled down a few of the chimneys round here. This is one of the only ones left.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34And this is only HALF the size it used to be.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41Everything round here's changed. The canal's changed as well.
0:27:41 > 0:27:48It's mainly used today for leisure and pleasure - canal-boat cruising and fishing, and things like that.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50Other than the warehouses,
0:27:50 > 0:27:57there's precious little left to remind us that this were the motorway of the early 19th century.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00But that's just what it was.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Nowadays, it takes a couple of hours to nip down the M62.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09But before the canal, it took weeks to travel over the Pennines.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14Those early civil engineers who built the Leeds And Liverpool Canal
0:28:14 > 0:28:21helped to revolutionise transport in Britain. They made cheap travel across the Pennines possible
0:28:21 > 0:28:25and laid the foundations for the Industrial Age.
0:28:25 > 0:28:32They helped turn Britain into the workshop of the world in the Victorian Age.
0:28:32 > 0:28:38And next week, I'll be visiting our greatest and most famous Victorian building,
0:28:38 > 0:28:43the Houses of Parliament, and I'll be going to the top of Big Ben.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48If you'd like to find out more about the building of Britain,
0:28:48 > 0:28:52then why not visit the website at -
0:28:52 > 0:28:57Subtitles by Alison Haggart and Audrey Flynn BBC Scotland 2002