History

1765 - Financial strain

At the Manchester end difficulties regarding land ownership were resolved by the Canal Duke purchasing Hulme Hall Estate for £9,000.

Expenditure of this order, coupled with similar costs along the line of Canal, as well as the cost of constructing the navigation, wharves, warehouses, etc was a great strain on the Duke’s finances and he had to borrow to pay his work men. In 1765 he obtained a loan or £25,000 from Child’s Bank on the security of his Canal but this was only the beginning. By today’s values he was eventually some £2 million or more in personal debt. He reduced his personal expenditure to the minimum; closed Bridgwater House in London and reduced his servants to a few.

Castlefield Wharf and Basin became a hive of activity from the time that the first loads of coal were hoisted to street level by waterwheel at a rate of 5 tons an hour. In addition, warehouses, a brick kiln and lime kiln were also built and the boating scene was extended when the Rochdale Canal was opened from Castlefield.

At the Runcorn end of the Canal the Duke spent considerable time on the flight of locks and the beginnings of the docks there, hence the building of Bridgewater House near the bottom of the old line of locks. There is also evidence that the Duke became involved as a schooner owner in the coasting trade.

At a fairly early stage of the extension of the Canal to Runcorn the Duke acquired land in Liverpool for a dock to serve the needs of his enterprises which was developed into the extensive Dukes Dock complex at Liverpool in the second half of the 18th Century.

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