When canal travel ruled county: Preston before the age of steam

One hundred and ninety years ago the travel writer and former soldier Sir George Head (1782-1855) toured the country compiling his 'Tour Through the Manufacturing Districts of England in the Summer of 1835', writes Keith Johnson.

- Keith Johnson

Surviving canal warehouses, in Corporation Street in the 1930s

It was at a time when the railways were emerging, but a good three years before an engine would be steaming out of Preston railway station en-route to Parkside on the North Union Railway on the last Wednesday of October 1838. It was a time when the canal system was well established, but about to face challenges from the railways.

According to his account he had travelled by stagecoach from Wigan to Preston and then journeyed by canal boat to Lancaster. He described his journey, the planned railway developments and his experiences on canal travel thus: "It is singular that at the present moment there is no other regular public conveyance by land for passengers between the two opulent towns of Wigan and Preston, than a vehicle, licensed to carry four inside and four outside, luggage unlimited, yet drawn by one unlucky horse.By the projected railroad the present steam engine communication between Liverpool and Wigan will be extended eighteen miles to the northward, as far as Preston, and thence, by the Preston and Wyre branch, to the mouth of the River Wyre.

"In the mean time, the proprietors of the Preston and Kendal canal conduct operations with undiminished energy, having, launched a new iron boat during the present year.