Industrial Heritage – Page 3 – DAVID OAKES

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The Navigation Warehouse, Shardlow, Derbyshire

Seems very strange to have a Port, and once a very busy Port, here in Derbyshire, at perhaps the furthest most point from the sea, here in middle England. But Shardlow was built on the newly built Trent and Mersey Canal, an inspired link designed by James Brindley in 1760, and completed over the 1770’s. An amazing feat of engineering and hard labour, by workmen who became known as known a navvies…. an abbreviation of ‘Navigators’ as canals were often referred to as ‘navigations’…. man made waterways.

The Trent and Mersey established a vital economic link between Hull on the East coast and Liverpool on the West, and making use of the Rivers Trent and Mersey, its 90+ mile route passing through the Potteries, and the expanding northern industrial regions.

Today Shardlow is quiet by comparison to its historic past, but a great place to walk and ponder on what was once a vital highway.

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