History
The line of the canal was first surveyed by Robert Whitworth in 1772. In 1791, John Longbotham, Robert Dickinson and Richard Beck resurveyed the proposed line, and a final survey was carried out later the same year by John Rennie.
In 1792 the promoters sought an Act of Parliament urgently, as proposals by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to alter their route would have affected the profitability of the southern section. It received the Royal Assent on 11 June 1792, and was entitled An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal, from Kirkby Kendal in the county of Westmoreland, to West Houghton in the county palatine of Lancaster, and also a navigable Branch from the said intended Canal at or near Barwick, to or near Warton Cragg, and also another navigable Branch, from, at or near, Galemoss, by Chorley, to or near Duxbury in the said county palatine of Lancaster.
The Act created the Company of Proprietors of the Lancaster Canal Navigation, and gave them powers to raise £414,100 by the issuing of shares, and an additional £200,000, either by mortgage or by issuing more shares, if required. John Rennie was appointed as Engineer in July 1792, with William Crossley the elder as his assistant, and Archibald Millar as resident engineer and superintendent. A second Act of Parliament was obtained in May 1793 to authorise the construction of the Glasson branch, so that the canal had a connection to the sea.
Read more about this topic: Lancaster Canal
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It is true that this man was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by extreme cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance .... Hitler was history in its purest form.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“In all history no class has been enfranchised without some selfish motive underlying. If to-day we could prove to Republicans or Democrats that every woman would vote for their party, we should be enfranchised.”
—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)