Douglas Navigation - History

History

In 1712, Thomas Steers, a civil engineer and surveyor who had arrived in Liverpool in 1710 to work on building the docks, surveyed the Douglas and recommended that it be made accessible to ships, enabling the transport of coal from the coalfields around Wigan down to the Ribble, and onwards to Preston. A bill was presented to Parliament in 1713, to allow the river to be improved from its mouth to Wild Mill, but the local landowners objected, and the bill was defeated in the House of Lords. A series of pamphlets were produced in an attempt to sway local opinion, and with the support of Wigan Corporation, another bill was presented. Again there was opposition, but the bill was passed, and the canalisation of the river from its junction with the River Ribble to Miry Lane End in Wigan was authorised by Parliament on 7 April 1720, with Steers and William Squire, Esq. of Liverpool as the two proprietors. They were given 11 years to complete the work, and could charge tolls on all goods carried, except for manure, which could not be charged. Commissioners were appointed, who could engage new proprietors if Steers and Squire failed to finish the task.

1720 was the time of the South Sea Bubble, a boom in the stock exchange, and Squire went to London where he raised £6,000 by issuing 1,200 shares against 25 per cent of the profits. The bubble burst two months after the shares had been issued, and Steers, Squire and Richard Norris, who was Squire's brother-in-law, eventually ended up in court, charged with fraud. All denied any wrongdoing, with Steers describing how he had bought land, stone and timber, constructed a lock, and been carrying goods along a 5 miles (8.0 km) section of the river. He alleged that he had received less money from Squire than he had spent on the work. Squire is believed to have lost most of the money he raised by speculating on the South Sea Bubble. Steers had completed a lock and bridge at Rufford, and had straightened some of the river. Work on the tidal lock at Croston Finney had been started, but with most of the original money now missing, no further work took place. Although the landowners had originally resisted the scheme, and the eleven years to complete it had passed, they revived the idea in 1733, and it was partially complete by 1738, when a contract was made between the commissioners and a colliery owner to deliver 800,000 baskets of coal. Squire and Steers were replaced by Roger Holt of Wigan and Alexander Leigh of Hindley Hall in March 1740, and the navigation was declared to be complete in 1742. An estimated £7,000 had been spent on this second phase of work, and another £1,000 on a fleet of boats.

Canalisation of the river involved the construction of eight locks, with a basin at Miry Lane End, in Wigan, which was connected to the river by a short artificial channel. Steers returned to work on the navigation in the early 1740s, when Leigh asked him for advice. Improvements to the river below Gathurst Bridge began in 1753, with the construction of "Leigh's Cut", but for whatever reason, progress was slow, and the cut was still unfinished in 1771. The main traffic was coal from Wigan, with north Lancashire limestone and Westmorland slate travelling in the opposite direction. The working life of the Douglas Navigation was short lived, however.