Channel to Channel ship canal?

THE Gloucester-Sharpness canal, still being used in the mid-1960s. There was talk of a much bigger local canal in the 19th century

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If you stayed awake in school history lessons, and if the curriculum of the time included the Industrial Revolution and how it turned Britain into Top Nation, you might have taken on board the fact that before the railways came along, and really before proper roads, the revolutionary transport solution was canals.

As everyone knew in the olden days, the cheapest and easiest way to shift large quantities of Heavy Stuff of whatever description, is on water. This remained the case long after Mr Brunel's time.