Today, the Bridgewater Canal forms an important part of the Cheshire Ring, a 100-mile circuit of waterways which not only encircles a large part of Cheshire, but takes in a trip through central Manchester and dips its toe into Staffordshire. At the same time, via its Stretford and Leigh Branch the Bridgewater also provides the North West's link to the Leeds & Liverpool and Lancaster canals. And yet when it opened its original main line in the 1760s, all of these connections were in the future. The pioneering Bridgewater Canal, while not actually the earliest in the country (there are several earlier ones, from the Sankey Canal right back to the Roman-built Fossdyke Navigation) stood alone. Built to serve a local need by delivering coal from the Duke of Bridgewater's mines at Worsley to the city of Manchester, the canal had no connections to any other waterway. That it later gained so many links as the network grew is perhaps testimony to its success and the role it played in kickstarting the canal era. Not to mention the political astuteness of the 'Canal Duke' when it came to supporting, opposing or influencing the various plans for other canals to the advantage of his own waterway.
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