Trade artery runs 127 miles

At 127-and-a-quarter miles, the Leeds-Liverpool Canal is the longest in Britain historically to be run by a single company. It took almost half a century to complete from its beginnings in 1770.

By The Newsroom

Published 3rd Mar 2010, 14:11 BST

Updated 3rd Mar 2010, 17:34 BST

Although it was the earliest trans-Pennine canal to be mooted, delays meant it was not ready until after the other two routes, Huddersfield Narrow and the Rochdale Canal.

Together with the Aire and Calder Navigation, the Leeds and Liverpool offered a coast-to-coast route between the Irish Sea and the North Sea.

The canal includes 91 locks on the main line and rises to a height of 487ft above sea level.

One of the toughest and most expensive pieces of work involved the cutting of a tunnel at Foulridge, Lancashire, which opened in 1796 and was 1,640 yards (1,500 metres) long.

The most important cargo was coal, of which more than a million tons was delivered to Liverpool every year in the 1860s.

A famous part of the canal is at Aintree, where it passes close to the racecourse and gives its name to the Canal Turn.