Exploring the St Helens Canal

Exploring St Helens Helens Canal

St Helens Canal was the first magor canal to be built in England opening in 1757. It was built under an Act of 1757 for a river navigation following the Sankey Brook, canal acts then being a rarity. However, the engineers working on the project had other ideas and used a loophole in the act to build a ten-lock canal. It opened in 1759, and soon became busy with coal traffic for Liverpool and the salt works on the River Weaver. The lower end of the canal was extended on a couple of occasions to its present terminus in Widnes. The canal closed in stages in the 20th century, the last traffic being to the sugar works at Newton-le-Willows in 1963 after this the canal fell into dereliction and large parts were filled in. Today we see some restoration work being done on the canal but it's going to take many years to repair this historic canal.