Josiah Wedgewood and the Trent and Mersey Canal


Inspired by the success of the Bridgewater Canal, Josiah Wedgwood, a Midlands pottery manufacturer and entrepreneur, instigated a number of similar projects. Josiah Wedgewood was the founder of Wedgewood china, a founder of luxury goods manufacturing in England.


Wedgwood realised early the profits he could make by transporting his products by water. If he was to expand his business, he knew he would have to be able to export his pottery over large distances and in a quick and economical fashion. The rough and bumpy roads of the day, however, were too slow and risky, and risked easily damaging his fragile pottery. He thus integrated his factories with canals to ensure his delicate products could be transported all over Britain in one piece.


Canal Mania


The most impressive project that Wedgwood was involved in was the Trent and Mersey Canal. This canal was also designed by James Brindley in 1766 as part of a network to link England’s four great rivers – the River Mersey, River Trent, River Severn, and River Thames. Wedgewood wanted the canal to bring in materials to his potteries at Stoke-On-Trent, and so with the help of two of his friends, Thomas Bentley and Erasmus Darwin, successfully petition Parliament for the route.


Eventually opening in 1777, the 93.5 miles (150.5km) long canal was England’s largest ever civil engineering project at the time. It ran through the east Midlands, west Midlands, and northwest England. And it overcame several natural


King’s Norton stop lock


problems such as the rolling hills of Staffordshire through the use of large tunnels.


The Trent and Mersey Canal allowed Josiah Wedgwood and other pottery factory owners in Stoke-On-Trent to transport their goods in larger volumes and at significantly reduced prices. In turn, the local potteries became one of the great ceramic centres of the world, transporting products all over the country and overseas.


As well as pottery, the canal moved raw materials (such as iron, coal and timber) and other goods all around the United Kingdom in large volumes. Serving as a crucial link between the industrial north and consumer- based south, it made it easier to mass produce consumer goods, contributing significantly to the industrial growth of the country.


It soon became apparent that having a stake in canals could make you vastly rich and so people began to invest widely in them. By the 1790’s Britain was experiencing a so-called “Canal Mania”, with people investing their money into practically every canal project they could. Over 50 canals were approved to be constructed by parliament during this period, and by 1800 they extended over 6,000km across Britain.


The canals were funded mostly by private venture capital, built as joint stock companies. With this, the first modern management structures were put in place. For many, the canals made a significant profit.


The canals linked coasts and navigable rivers, making British industry extremely more profitable. In the Midlands especially they served as the only real realistic means of water transport, allowing the region to boom.


The Kings Norton stop lock (pictured) is the only guillotine-gated canal stop lock in existence. It was built between 1793 and 1816 to control the flow of water from the new Stratford Canal into the lower-level Worcester and Birmingham Canal. Canal gates were a point of pride during this time and canal companies were fiercely protective of their own water supplies. They therefore sought to separate them at all costs, and many canal gates were created as a result. The Kings Norton stop lock is one of the best examples of this.


120 | The Report • June 2022 • Issue 100


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