(Note that this article was written over twenty years ago. If updated there would be minor additions or alterations. A list of mines can be found * here *)

 

The removal of water from mines has always been an expensive process. To reduce the cost, miners have always sought other uses for the water, such as transport or power. Many British canals had their water supplies increased by that pumped from mines. Possibly the earliest underground waterway was Parnall’s Canal which served the Carclaze tin mine near St. Austell in Cornwall. It may have opened around 1720, and was about one kilometre long, with ore being loaded into boats within the mine. It closed in 1732 when the adit collapsed, trapping several boats which were subsequently rediscovered about 1850. (1) However, the exact dates for the canal are uncertain as other sources suggest the canal was opened around 1770. (2)

 

This was an isolated case, and the development of water transport within mines really began during the mid eighteenth century. Location was important, with most examples being built where drainage soughs emptied directly into a valley. A few were associated with canal tunnels, though only one, the Speedwell mine of 1774, used water exclusively for transport, the mine not requiring drainage. Of particular importance was the hardness of the rock through which the sough had to be built. Soughs built purely for drainage could be less than one metre square, and to make them large enough for boats required much additional work and consequently expense. The size of navigable soughs seem to have been remarkably similar, irrespective of the type of mine. However, those serving non-ferrous mines tended to be smaller, perhaps because the rock associated with such mines was harder. The one major exception were the limestone mines at Dudley which had waterways large enough for full size ‘narrow boats’.

 

This paper looks at the history of some of the British mines with navigable levels (or soughs). It has been divided into three sections dealing with non-ferrous mines, limestone mines and finally coal mines. Brief details of all those mines with navigable levels are contained in an appendix.

 

Non-ferrous mines

 

Drainage of non-ferrous mines by sough may have been introduced into Britain by the Dutchman, Cornelius Vermuyden, better known in England for his land drainage schemes in the east of the country. Vermuyden’s sough, located to the south of Cromford in Derbyshire and around 1200 metres long, was driven between 1631 and 1651 along veins, progress averaging 10 to 12 centimetres per day. Prior to the introduction of gunpowder, soughs were difficult and expensive to drive, and early soughs usually drained just one mine. After the introduction of gunpowder circa 1670 had made driving soughs easier, they often drained a larger area. They were usually around 1.2 metres high by 0.6 metres wide. Interestingly, the first use of gunpowder in English mines is also attributed to Dutchmen, Jacob Mumma and Daniel Demitrius, who worked the Ecton copper mines in Staffordshire. (3)

 

The first navigable soughs were in the Peak District, at Ape’s Tor Boat Level, Ecton and Hillcarr Sough, near Matlock. The former was worked by a group including the land owner, the Duke of Devonshire, and Thomas and John Gilbert. (4) John was agent to the Duke of Bridgewater and was closely involved with other navigable soughs, especially those at Worsley. Ape’s Tor Boat Level was built as a drainage sough in 1764, water being raised by a horse gin the 200 feet to the surface. By 1767 it had been made navigable and was described by Sir Joseph Banks: ‘The workmanship of this mine is as wonderful for its boldness and cleverness as any other… particularly a navigable drift much under Level by which the Ore is convey’d with scare any trouble from the Farfield to a convenient shaft where it is drawn up with horses to the day’. (5) The Level was enlarged in 1780 and used until 1788 when a Boulton & Watt steam winding engine was installed. (6)

 

Hillcarr Sough (7) was begun in 1766, the main sough being completed by1784. Peter Nightingale and John Alsop were the principal owners, but John Gilbert also held shares in the venture. It is possible that the sough was designed to be navigable, as boats were used for removing the rubbish during construction. Boats were also used to carry spoil away down Hillcarr Sough in the 1790s during the construction of Stanton Sough in which John Gilbert also had an interest. It is not known how long Hillcarr Sough remained navigable, though it may have reverted to a simple drainage sough around 1839 when the various mining companies in the area amalgamated to form the Alport Mining Company. Although Richard Trevithick had already installed a steam pumping engine around 1802, further pumps were needed. John Taylor (8) was involved, and he had stopped navigation on at least two other soughs, the Holywell Level and the Duke’s Level at Grassington. Perhaps his aversion to navigable soughs was a result of his involvement with Morwellham Tunnel on the Tavistock Canal where mines were also accessed from the tunnel. (9) Taylor arranged for new pumps to be installed for the Alport Mining Company, with much of the water they raised being sent down the navigable sough. This would have made it extremely difficult for it to be used by boats as well. Mining finished in 1857, but was revived twice before finally ending in 1932.

 

Just to the north, Speedwell Level was built between 1771 and 1781, with John Gilbert once again being involved as a partner. The Level was only used for transport and natural underground watercourses provided the water supply. Mining continued until 1790, but little ore was found and the mine certainly never covered its costs. However, in 1778 a new entrance was opened allowing access down 104 steps, and the mine was developed for tourists. It is still open as a visitor attraction today. (10)

 

Another mine which developed a tourist trade was Holywell Lead Mine in North Wales. The Level here was begun in 1774. The mine had become profitable by 1776, with boats being used to transport both miners and ore. In 1788, the mine agent, Thomas Edwards, installed a picnic area in one of the caverns, and the mine became a minor tourist attraction. (11) The mine was very successful, producing a good tonnage of ore, and, in 1829, John Taylor took over responsibility. He immediately installed a steam pumping engine and converted the navigable sough into a horse tramway. (12)

 

In northern England, construction of the Nent Force Level began on 10 June 1776. John Smeaton was one of those acting for the owners, the Greenwich Hospital Estates, and once again John Gilbert was involved as one of the partners. Work started on a one metre wide sough, but in 1777 Gilbert recommended widening this to make it navigable. The design was altered and the sough built 2.8 metres square, though spoil was removed by wagon. Work continued slowly, and in 1805 it was decided to partly flood the sough and use boats instead of wagons. By 1810 some 4100 metres had been driven without striking any good veins of ore. The decision was made to abandon the level sough, continuing it instead closer to the surface and on a slope. The whole sough was completed in 1842. It is difficult to ascertain how intensively the sough was used by boats, though from 1810 at least until 1859 it was certainly used to some extent as a tourist attraction. The sough continued to be used for drainage until mining ceased around 1951, and at that time a boat was certainly kept for inspection and maintenance. (13)

 

Limestone mines

 

Limestone was one of the most important materials of the eighteenth century, and was used by the agricultural, building and iron trades. Usually it was excavated in quarries, and this was Lord Dudley & Ward’s original intention when he began building a one kilometre long canal in 1775 from the Birmingham Canal, at Tipton, to serve his quarries at Castle Mill and Wren’s Nest. The last 200 metres of the canal were in a tunnel which opened in June 1778 and in which there were transhipment wharves for coal from Tipton Colliery and for limestone. However, more important was the extension into Castle Mill Basin, open to the surface, where limestone was quarried and loaded. (14)

 

In 1784, the Dudley Canal proposed an extension of their canal to join Lord Ward’s canal at Castle Mill Basin by a tunnel under the town of Dudley. This would create a junction between the Dudley and Birmingham canals. The 2715 metre tunnel proved difficult to build, and was only opened in 1792. A more direct line to the Birmingham Canal was also built, and part of Lord Ward’s Canal became an branch serving his lime kilns. Today it forms part of the Black Country Museum.

 

Castle Mill Basin soon formed the centre of a network of underground canals into limestone workings. About half way along the original tunnel there was an underground basin, now opened out to form Shirts Mill Basin, with adits into Tipton Colliery and some early limestone workings. On entering Castle Mill Basin there were workings on either side and two canal tunnels. That on the left was the Dudley Tunnel. A short way into the tunnel is Cathedral Arch, where there is a branch canal into the Little Tess workings which dates from 1790. At the end of these workings the canal divides again. Dark Cavern is reached by a straight continuation of the canal, and in Dark Cavern there is a branch to the right which serves Mudhole Cavern and the East Castle Mines. A branch to the right from Little Tess enters Singing Cavern via a short tunnel. There were shafts from several of these caverns to workings below which are now flooded. These mines continued to be used until the mid-nineteenth century. The tunnel on the right from Castle Mill Basin served the Wren’s Nest Mine and was built between 1801 and 1815. Inside the workings there were basins for both the East and West mines, and limestone continued to be excavated here until 1926.

 

The workings were usually pillar and stall, often over six metres in height. They were very impressive, and there were many visitors to the mines in the nineteenth century. In the 1850s and ’60s there were several fêtes within the Dark Cavern featuring choral music and military bands. Gas lighting was installed (15), and in the 1860s there were demonstrations of electric lighting. The British Association for the Advancement of Science also held meetings here in 1839 and 1849 when Sir Roderick Murchison gave a lecture on the Silurian fossil system to an audience of thousands. (16)

 

Although the mines had closed by 1926, Dudley Tunnel continued to be used by a small amount of canal traffic. Britain’s canals were nationalised in 1948, and the tunnel was officially abandoned in 1962. However, a group of enthusiasts formed the Dudley Canal Tunnel Preservation Society in 1964, and organised trips into the tunnel, and promoted its retention. The Society became the Dudley Canal Trust in 1970, and working with Dudley Council and British Waterways they managed to reopen the tunnel in 1973, introducing an electric trip boat two years later. Unfortunately, subsidence severely damaged the southern end of the tunnel and it was again closed in 1981.

 

Fortunately, at this time the local authorities were surveying the abandoned limestone workings, and the Trust persuaded them to finance the reopening of the northern end of the tunnel, together with some of the lengths of canal which served the mines. Because the tunnel from Cathedral Arch to Little Tess passed through a fault, it was decided not to reopen this. Instead a new tunnel was built from Dudley Tunnel at The Well, near Hurst Cavern, into Singing Cavern. It opened in 1985. Following this, the old tunnel from Singing Cavern into Little Tess was restored during the winter of 1987/8 and a new tunnel from Little Tess into Castle Mill Basin constructed in 1988/9. The whole system was opened in 1990. Finally, in 1991, work began on restoring the southern end of Dudley Tunnel, partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The tunnel reopened in 1992. Today pleasure boats use the main tunnel, while electric trip boats carry parties both through the tunnel and around the circular route through the former limestone mines of Singing Cavern and Little Tess. Unfortunately, most of the other mines have now been filled in because of the danger of subsidence.

 

Coal mines

 

Navigable levels have been suggested for over thirty coal mines across the British Isles, though it is probable that only around twenty were actually built. Two were proposed in Ireland. The first was at Drumglass Colliery where, in 1767, Davis Ducart suggested constructing a navigable drainage sough for tub boats carrying 12 tons. The boats would leave the mine, and at the end of the level there would be a 30 feet diameter shaft, 148 feet deep, down which coal in 10 cwt boxes would be lowered to boats waiting below within a tunnel. Work was started on the tunnel, but Ducart altered his plans and constructed inclined planes instead. (17) The second proposed level was at Doonane, County Leix, where an English engineer, Israel Rhodes, suggested in 1803 that a navigable level could feed the Grand Canal at Athy by a branch canal. He left before anything was done, and the collieries themselves proved to be too small to be successful. (18)

 

Clyn-du Level, near Swansea in Wales, was possibly the earliest navigable level, and may date from 1747. It ran almost one kilometre underground and carried coal to the copper works of Morris, Lockwood & Company. The level was used by boats 6.15 metres long by 0.9 metres wide capable of carrying 4 tons, and was 1.4 metres wide and 2.5 metres high. It had closed by 1845. (19) A second Welsh navigable level may have opened in 1757 at Gwaun-cae-gurwen, on the Clydach River, 20 km to the north of Swansea, but there is little contemporary documentary evidence for any of the three Welsh mines from this period. (20) Another Welsh navigable level was that at Cyfartha. This was visited by von Reden in 1790 when he described it as ‘den 125 Ltr. Unter der Erde und 3 Meilen über der Erde verlaufended Kanal in Cyfartha bei Merthyr Tydfil für mit Pferden gezogene kleine 24 ft lange Boote, die jeweils 1 t Steinkohle luden’. (21) The level was in use until about 1835-40. (22)

 

Scotland may have had two navigable levels. Robert Reid Cunningham built a 3.6km canal in 1772 from his mines in Stevenson to the harbour at Saltcoats. Branches were built to the mines, and these may have included navigable levels. The canal had closed by 1830. (23) The other scheme was proposed by James Watt, who surveyed several other canals. (24) It was never built, but was to run from inside Baron Mure’s mine at Cauldwell to Loch Libuch, a distance of about 3 km. The boats used were 1.85 m long and 9.25 m long, and would carry 4.5 tons. (25

 

Several canal tunnels had associated coal workings, the best known being the Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent & Mersey Canal near Stoke-on-Trent. The engineer was James Brindley, and he was in partnership with, amongst others, John and Thomas Gilbert for working Goldenhill Colliery. Access to this was by a 2.4 km branch off the main tunnel, and boats capable of carrying 10 tons were used, around half the size of those used on the main canal. Coal may also have been loaded within the main tunnel, though this would have caused problems for navigation as the tunnel was not wide enough for two boats to pass. The navigable level was begun at the same time as the main tunnel, between 1767 and 1775, and probably closed when the new canal tunnel was built in the late 1820s. (26) Ironstone was also found and exploited, and it was also found in the Boothstown Level and in Butterley Tunnel.

 

The Donnington Wood Canal, a tub boat canal built by Earl Gower and the Gilbert brothers, opened in 1768. It was joined, at Donnington Wood, by the Wombridge Canal in 1788. The same year the Shropshire Canal was authorised, and this opened around 1790 and joined the Donnington Wood Canal by an incline down to the older canal at the same place. The junction was also the location of the Clod Coal Navigable Level. Built by John and Thomas Gilbert in 1764-8, it may well have connected directly with the Donnington Wood Canal. However, there is no definite evidence. One description tells of a bell-shaped shaft bottom which allowed boats to be lowered, while another suggests that the underground canal was similar to that at Worsley. The level was also used for drainage, and Richard Reynolds, father of William, best known for the development of the inclined plane, contributed to the cost. In fact, his mines received most benefit, and he may have built the Double Coal Navigable Level in the 1780s partly to compensate the Gilberts. This was 66 metres below the surface, and boats would certainly have needed to be lowered down a shaft in the way described earlier. There is some suggestion that the two levels were connected by an incline, but descriptions of the system are confusing, making it impossible to come to a definite conclusion as to the exact layout of the levels. They probably closed in the early 1850s. (27)

 

The Worsley system

 

Undoubtedly, the most important system of navigable levels were those at Worsley, near Manchester, for which John Gilbert was primarily responsible, together with the Duke of Bridgewater (Francis Egerton). However, the idea may pre-date their involvement. The Rev. Francis Henry Egerton, writing in 1818, stated: ‘The Fact is, That His Grace, Francis Egerton, late Duke of Bridgewater, did, Not, Originally, Conceive the Project … the Project had, Always, been in idea, even in the Time of William (Egerton) of Worsley … His Father, Scroop Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater, who died in the year 1744-45, brought the means of giving effect to That, which, Heretofore, had been in idea …’. (28)

 

Coal mining around Worsley is mentioned as far back as 1376 when coal was probably obtained from seams exposed on the surface. By 1600, bell pits was the probable method of coal extraction, and as mining developed the pillar and stall system was introduced. Soughs for drainage were common in 18^th century north-west England, and they could be found both at Wigan and in the Irwell valley, close to Worsley. In Worsley, a sough for drainage had been built by 1729, water being raised by hand from the mine and then emptied into Worsley Brook via this sough. However, the Worsley sough was fairly close to the surface and needed constant repair, which proved expensive. It was also small in cross-section, so would have been difficult to make navigable.

 

The main market for the coal from the Worsley mines were Salford and Manchester, about eight kilometres away. Coal was originally delivered by road. In the mid-eighteenth century, the Duke was looking for a way to reduce the cost of transport from his mines. The rivers Mersey and Irwell opened to navigation in 1736, linking the growing port of Liverpool with its industrial hinterland around Manchester. Worsley Brook, from its junction with the River Irwell was also authorised to be made navigable in 1737 (3.2 km in length and with a rise of 12.3 metres) though this navigation was never built. Scroop Edgerton, the first Duke of Bridgewater, and his agent, Massey, may have considered building locks from this proposed navigation to a mine drainage sough, as in September 1735 they had examined the ground from the old sough mouth at Worsley Mill to Middlewood. Boats may have already been using a sough as Massey stated in 1743 that coal was being brought from the mine via the adit. (29)

 

Coal was becoming an increasingly important fuel, and in 1753/4 a scheme for a canal from Salford to the coal mines around Worsley, Leigh and Wigan was proposed. However, it was unsuccessful in obtaining the necessary Act of Parliament, probably because it required a water supply from the River Irwell, and mill owners were afraid this would affect their businesses. The next scheme was for supplying coal to Liverpool by making the Sankey Brook navigable from the coalfield around St. Helens to the River Mersey. This scheme was authorised by Parliament in 1755, but instead of making the Brook navigable, the undertakers built a canal parallel to it, creating the first successful English canal of the industrial revolution.

 

In 1757, the Third Duke of Bridgewater decided he had to improve his coal mines at Worsley as their profits had declined over the first half of the eighteenth century. It was his agent, John Gilbert, who was probably responsible, in 1759, for the initial design of the Bridgewater Canal. It joined Worsley with Manchester in 1763, drastically reducing the price of coal in the town. Gilbert also brought in James Brindley to act as the canal’s engineer. Brindley had built a mine drainage scheme a few kilometres away, at Wet Earth Colliery on the River Irwell, between 1752 and 1756, water being taken from the river to drive the pumps. Nearby, there may have been two navigable levels, at Wet Earth and at Botany Bay collieries, and there certainly were drainage levels in the area dating from the 1720s. The navigable levels were probably working in1765, and may have been open earlier, pre-dating those at Worsley. If so, Brindley would have seen them, and may even have been responsible for them.

 

So it is uncertain which of the two men, Gilbert or Brindley, had the idea for using an underground canal to both drain the mine and for boats, but by the 1 July, 1759 some 150 metres of navigable level had been driven at Worsley on the same level as the new canal linking the mines with Manchester. By using water from the mines to feed the canal, it was possible to overcome some of the objections made to the earlier 1753/4 canal scheme between Salford and Wigan.

 

The entrance to the mine was in an old sandstone quarry, known as The Delph. It was from this quarry that stone had been supplied for the construction of Barton Bridge in 1676. Work probably started in the winter of 1675 when four men were paid for ‘Feyinge stone and removinge earth in the stone delfe’. Some 4,821 loads of stone were carried from Worsley to Barton at a cost of 1s 6d per load in winter and 1s 3d per load in summer. Nearly all the stone for the bridge came from Worsley, just 36 loads being brought from Ringley. The bridge cost £1121-14-10. (30)

 

At Worsley, the coal seams were inclined and had several faults, so that as the level was extended, more and more of the seams could be worked. Over the twelve years after the canal was opened, the Main Level was extended and at least four branches were built into seams west of the main tunnel. A second entrance, 500 metres long, was driven in 1771, empty boats entering by one tunnel and loaded ones leaving by the other. Gates were fitted to the tunnel mouths, and within the tunnels, so that the flow of water could be controlled. These were closed after boats had entered the mine so that it was easier to haul them along the tunnel, and when the gates were opened, the flow of water made it easier for loaded boats to travel back along the tunnel. 

 

In a letter to the printer of the St. James’s Chronicle dated 30 September, 1763, the entrance was described. ‘At the mouth of the cavern is erected a water-bellows, being the body of a tree, forming a hollow cylinder, standing upright: Upon this a wooden bason is fixed, in the form of a funnel, which receives a current of water from the higher ground. This water falls into the cylinder, and issues out at the bottom of it, but at the same time carries a quantity of air with it, which is received into tin pipes, and forced to the innermost recesses of the coal-pits, where it issues out, as if from a pair of bellows, and rarifies the body of thick air, which would otherwise prevent the workmen from subsisting on the spot where the coals are dug.’ Doors fitted to the entrances also controlled the air flow. In another letter, the entrance is further described. ‘There is also a mill that by a small overshot stream turns a wheel eight yards diameter, and by that power, three pairs of stones to grind corn, and an apparatus compleat to make mortar; also portable cranes of an uncommon construction, to draw stone out of the quarry with calipers’. (31)

 

For much of the time, coal was carried in boxes, and cranes were provided for loading and unloading. The boxes were also needed to aid coal handling in the mine as it expanded. Eventually there were four navigable levels, one above and two below the Main Level. Coal was raised or lowered to the Main Level in these boxes. The use of coal boxes carried by boats continued on the Bridgewater Canal until the 1960s, though by this time they were loaded at the surface.

 

There were two sizes of boat for use within the mines. The largest or M boats, were used on the Main Level, and were around 15 metres long by one and a half metres broad and could carry around 12 tons. Smaller T boats were used on the other three levels and also for maintenance. In 1803, there were 82 M boats and 75 T boats, 45 in the deep levels. By 1837, there were 187 M boats and 33 T boats ,with none in the deep levels. (32) The deep levels continued to be exploited at this time, so presumably coal was raised by shaft. Between 1795 and 1797, an inclined plane was built within the mine between the Upper Level and the Main Level, making both accessible by M boats. This ceased work in 1822 when the upper level was closed, though the level remained in use for drainage. A further type of boat, the B boat, seems to have developed later. They were about 2 metres longer than the M boats, and were probably used on the section of the system between Worsley and the incline. The length of the Main Level was some six kilometres and the upper level three kilometres. However, there were many branches, and the total length of the navigable system, including branches, was 83.4 kilometres. The use of boats for carrying coal underground ceased in 1887, though the tunnels continued to be maintained for drainage until c1968.

 

The navigable level at Worsley became an international attraction. Gabriel Jars visited in 1765 when he described the system: ‘…in order to facilitate the exploitation of the coal and drain off the water a drainage tunnel has been cut at right angles to the direction of the seams… This drainage tunnel consists of a canal vaulted almost its whole length with bricks and lime… so that the coal is taken from the seam in boats which are very narrow but comparatively long, constructed specially for the canal’.

 

Amongst the other visitors to the mine were King Christian VII of Denmark (1768), the Russian Princess Czartoriski, Duchess of Oldenburg (1773), and Grand Duke Nicholas (1817). Of more interest in relation to the navigable levels in Poland are the numerous visits made to England by Prussian engineers in the late 18th and early 19th century, initiated by von Reden. Professor Schwerdtfeger has identified some 81 reports or descriptions of foreign journeys made by Prussian engineers between 1764 and 1846. Some of these, including von Reden, visited Worsley.

 

In 1790, writing of his visit the previous year, von Reden said: ‘die Förderung mit Booten kostet dort pro Scheffel Kohle auf 100 Ltr. Länge nicht mehr als den zehnten Teil eines Penny …, schlug von Reden vor, den vorhandene Fuchsgruben-Stollen dafür auszurüsten und einen neuen Stollen mit 3 ft Wassertiefe für 30 ft lange und 4 ft breite Boote mit 40 bis 50 Scheffel Kohle aufzufahren’. (33) There followed descriptions of the navigable levels at Worsley, Merthyr Tydfil, Holywell, Derbyshire (Hillcarr), and Shropshire (Donnington Wood). A further report dated 1799 describes the incline at Worsley. ‘Um aber den Pferdetransport der Kohlen nach Gleiwitz überflüssig zu machen, plante von Reden nach dem Vorbild von Worsley den Schiffstransport auf einem Kanal, wobei allerdings eine Höhendifferenz zwischen dem Mundloch und der Hütte in Gleiwitz von 16.5 m überwunden werden mußte. Dafür sah er zwei Schrägaufzüge von 11.5 m and von 5 m vor. Die Kähne sollten in Schleusenkammern - am Mundloch und am Ende der mittleren Kanalhaltung - beim Absenken des Wassers auf einen Wagen gesetzt, dann nach Öffnung des Hubtores an einem Seil auf der Schräge heruntergelassen und beim Eintauchen des Wagen vom Wasser abgehoben werden. (Die Konstruktion ist identisch mit dem 1795 von John Gilbert in Worsley errichteten untertägigen Schrägaufzug). (34) From this we can see that not only were Poland’s navigable levels based on that at Worsley, but the design of the inclines on the Klodnice Canal were also altered from the design based on the incline at Hay, near Ironbridge, to that based on Worsley’s underground incline. (35)

 

Conclusions

 

John Gilbert’s name appears in the history of many navigable levels, and he was undoubtedly a major influence on their development. He was certainly responsible for much of the development at Worsley, which was copied both in England and abroad. For example, in a booklet published in 1765 on ‘A View of the Advantages of Inland Navigations’ which was promoting the proposed Trent & Mersey Canal, there is a section on products found along the line of the canal. It describes the mines at Rugeley as having: ‘… a blazing kind of coal, called cannel, and other coals are found, belonging to the Earl of Uxbridge. The lower stratum of these mines is said to be a valuable one; and it is apprehended a navigable sough might be carried from the new canal into the heart of them, in the manner of the Duke of Bridgewater’s colliery, in Lancashire; and that this would lay them dry; the want of which is the present obstacle to their being worked; and at the same time convey the coals into the new canal; to the great advantage of the noble proprietor, and the neighbouring country’. Many navigable levels are probably based on Worsley experience or knowledge. However, not all were. Both Parnall’s Canal and the levels in South Wales may predate those at Worsley, and they seem to have developed independently. 

 

The majority of navigable levels had closed by 1850. Many served mines based on pillar and stall methods, which left a considerable tonnage of coal to support the roof. As more modern and economical methods were introduced, so these earlier workings were abandoned. Also, mines became deeper, making the use of navigable levels more difficult to arrange. There were also the development of the steam railway and improvements in coal handling. These provided a better system for transport which considerably reduced the amount of handling, and thus reduced breakage, always a major factor in the transport of coal. In fact, the container system used at Worsley was an early, and successful, attempt to address this problem. It was the change in mining methods which led to its abandonment, not a failure of the system.