History

1795 - From Worsley to Leigh

Nevertheless the Duke now in his 60th year successfully promoted and secured his fifth Canal Act in 1795 to extend the Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Leigh to link up with the Wigan branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal provide through navigation between Lancashire and Cheshire or beyond in the national system of waterway evolved from the beginnings of the Bridgewater Canal.

The foregoing is but a brief account of the widespread enterprises of the 6th Earl and 3rd Duke of Bridgewater which for most of his active life left him heavily in debt. It was only in his later years when the Canal and other activities began to yield marked results that he was able to benefit from the fruits of his labours. That he was truly the father of inland Navigation, as inscribed on the lasting memorial to him, facing Ashridge, the ancestral home of the Bridgewater’s in Hertfordshire

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