Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/112

, together with the extensive subterranean works, at his coal mines, in Worsley, were executed. The aqueduct over the Mersey and Irwell Navigation at Barton, was opened on the 17th July, 1761, and shortly afterwards the line of canal to Manchester. The underground canals and tunnels at Worsley are said to be eighteen miles in length, and to have cost £168,960. From Worsley, a branch of one mile and a half in length extends to Chat Moss, across which, the line to Hollin Ferry, near Glazebrook, was intended to pass.

In 1762 this spirited and patriotic nobleman applied to parliament, and obtained the necessary powers to enable him to extend his navigation, so as to open a better navigable communication with LiverpooL This act is entitled,  'An Act to enable the Most Noble Francis Duke of Bridgewater, to make a navigable Cut or Canal from Longford Bridge, in the township of Stretford, in the county palatine of Lancaster, to the River Mersey, at a place called the Hempstones, in the township of Halton, in the county of Chester.'  It is here recited that the canal from the Duke's coal mines to Longford Bridge, whence the proposed extension was to proceed, together with a considerable portion of the remainder of the line to Manchester, was finished.

The original line to Hempstones takes a south-westerly course from Longford Bridge, crossing the Mersey by an aqueduct; by the town of Altringham, and Dunham Massey, (the seat of the Earl of Stamford and Warrington) near which place it passes over the River Bollin by an aqueduct, thence by Lymm, Groppenhall, crossing the London Road two miles south of Warrington, to the River Mersey, at Hempstones; but before the latter portion could be executed, an act of the 6th George III. was obtained by a company, to enable them to make a canal to connect the Rivers Trent and Mersey, which is entitled,  'An Act for making a navigable Cut or Canal from the River Trent, at or near Wilden Ferry, in the county of Derby, to the River Mersey, at or near Runcorn Gap.'  This act contains a clause, whereby the Duke of Bridgewater engages to form a junction with the above line of the Trent and Mersey Canal at Preston Brook, instead of opening into the Mersey at Hempstones, which is nearly one mile and a half higher up the river than the place where the Trent and