Memories of the Duke's Canal at Stretford

The Duke's Canal from Stretford, 1830

Now if you don’t live near a river I reckon a busy canal is the next best thing.

And of course Stretford has both.

Not that that this will be one of those trips back to a rosy view of the past.  Working waterways like the Thames where I grew up were noisy dangerous and often smelly places, but they were also busy, exciting and held out the promise of adventures.

Now in the case of the Duke’s Canal that pretty much meant Manchester which for a young lad who knew only the lanes and farms of Chorlton or Stretford would have been a beacon of opportunity and mystery.

And if that lad travelled along the canal to the Duke’s Quay there is no doubt that he would have been as impressed as one unknown tourist from Worcestershire who recorded in his diary in 1792 that

“There’s such Quantities of Slate, Timber, Stone & Merchandize of all sorts.  The warehouses are very Extensive, but they are Pretty will filled with one thing or other.  There’s not less than 30 or 40 Thousand Bushels of Corn in them at this time and large Quantities of flour &c.*

Paying for the journey in 1841

Fast forward just forty years and if you could have afforded it the canal was still the quickest and most comfortable way of travelling into Manchester.

So if I could have afforded it I would have chosen one of the twice daily package boats from Stretford along the canal which transported passengers in comfort and speed.

A ticket for the front room cost 6d [2½p] and the back room 4d [1½p].*

This was travelling in style.   These packet boats were fitted with large deck cabins surrounded by windows which allowed the passengers to sit “under cover and see the country” glide by at the rate of six miles an hour, made possible by  two or sometimes three horses which pulled the packet.  And if that was not style enough the lead horse was guided by a horseman in full company livery.**

It was a pleasant enough journey for most of the route was still across open farm land and it was not till Cornbrook that the landscape became more industrial.

Along the Duke's Canal in 1850

From here on there was no mistaking that the final destination was that busy, smoky and energetic city.

The chemical and dye works of Cornbrook gave way to saw mills, a textile factory, paper mill and all manner of wharves and ware houses before the packet arrived in the heart of Castlefield.

But we all know that I wouldn’t have been in the money and so there would have been no fast packet boat for me and no walk out of the village along the old road to Stretford, instead it would have been a longer and slower tramp, north through Martledge.

But that is another story for another time.

Instead for tomorrow more memories of the canal and boat building.

Pictures; Packet boat charges from Pigot and Slater’s Directory of Manchester and Salford 1841, and extract from Bradshaw's The Inland Navigation of England and Wales, 1830 and  detail of the Cornbrook stretch of the Duke’s canal from the OS map of Lancashire, 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Lancashire in 1792, A Tourist’s Diary, To Liverpool by Canal, Ships in the Streets, Manchester Guardian July 17, 1936