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Eric de Maré: Canals
In the first half of the 20th century competition from roads and railways had seen a huge decline in the use of canals to carry freight traffic. In 1948 concerned by the British Transport Commission’s nationalisation of the canal network bringing the threat of further canals being abandoned Eric de Maré set out to record some of the huge variety of canal related architecture. In 1950 he published 'The Canals of England'.
Early factory by the Macclesfield Canal, Cheshire
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NOTES: Work on the Macclesfield Canal began at Bollington in 1826 and was completed at Hall Green in 1831. Its route was surveyed by Thomas Telford and its construction was engineered by William Crosley.
A wood bollard at the beginning of the Oxford Canal at Hawkesbury Junction, Warwickshire
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NOTES: The Oxford Canal begins at Hawkesbury Junction where it meets the Coventry Canal and ends in central Oxford. Engineered by James Brindley and completed after his death by his assistant, Samuel Simmock, work on the canal began in the Coventry basin in 1769 and was completed at the Oxford end in 1790.
A pleasure boat crossing the Chirk Aqueduct on the Llangollen section of the Shropshire Union Canal
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NOTES: The Chirk aqueduct was completed in 1801 while the Shropshire Union Canal was officially opened in 1835.
Duke's Dock, Liverpool: the long narrow basin with Duke's Grain Warehouse in the background
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NOTES: Francis Egerton, the third and last Duke of Bridgewater, commissioned James Brindley to build Duke's Dock as a general terminal warehouse for the unloading of the canal barges from the Bridgewater Canal near the centre of Liverpool. It opened in 1773 and was further extended in the 1790s.
Iron Bridge at Hawkesbury Junction, Warwickshire
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NOTES: Engineered by James Brindley and completed after his death by his assistant, Samuel Simcock, the Coventry Canal was constructed from 1768 to 1790. Its connection with the Oxford Canal at Hawkesbury Junction was made in 1836. The bridge was cast at the Britannia Foundry in Derby, and was erected for the Coventry Canal Company in 1837.
