Historian Peter Holme describes the opening - and demise - of the Lancaster Canal

On June 11, 1792 “An Act for Making and Maintaining a Navigable Canal from Kirkby Kendal in the County of Westmorland to West Houghton in the County Palatine of Lancaster” received the Royal Assent.

John Rennie was appointed as engineer.

A second Act of Parliament was passed the following year to authorise the construction of the Glasson branch so that the canal had a connection to the sea. Work started almost immediately on the Preston to Tewitfield section and in 1813 work began on the Canal North from Tewitfield and was completed to Kendal in 1819.

The Kendal Section was due to be opened on June 18, 1819 but was put back a day so that it did not conflict with the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

About 9am the Corporation and their ladies, preceded by a band of music, walked in procession from the Mayor’s residence to the canal basin where they embarked on board a barge.

At a quarter before 10 o’clock the corporation barge accompanied by a second, known as “The Extra Barge,” set off amid the ringing of bells and firing of canons down the canal.

All business was suspended, shops were closed and the canal banks and slopes of the Castle Hill were crowded with spectators anxious to witness the “novel spectacle.”

The barges passed the tunnel at Hincaster about twelve o’clock and arrived at Crooklands at one o’clock and awaited the arrival of the boats and barges from Lancaster.

Thirty minutes later the first vessel arrived from the South - a packet boat, on board which were the Mayor of Lancaster and the Canal Committee.

The procession of 16 vessels led by the Corporation Barge then made its way back to Kendal, finally arriving at around 5pm. The guests then paraded to the town hall where about 120 people sat down to “an excellent dinner provided by Mr Webster.”

During the canal’s working life the packet boats provided an express passenger service. The seven-hour journey between Preston and Kendal halved the best speeds of stage-coaches. The packet boats were also able to carry much more coal resulting, in a very short while, the reduction of two pence per hundredweight and other economic advantages..

The coming of the railways was the start of the end of the canal as a form of transportation and the Canal Company came to an arrangement to lease the canal to the railway company, which paid £12,665.87 a year for the lease, eventually buying it out in July 1885.

The canal suffered numerous problems with leakage and in 1939 the LMS closed the first half mile of the Kendal section. Further leakages resulted in a further closure up to the gas works.

There was no other suitable transport to get the coal to the gas works which kept the canal open but when this was transferred to road transport it signified the end in 1955.