History

Many of our canals and rivers were built at the height of the industrial revolution and stepping foot onto one of our towpaths is akin to stepping into a living museum where you can touch all of the exhibits.

Our canals are home to over 2,700 listed structures, 50 scheduled ancient monuments and five UNESCO world heritage sites. Just by walking along a 20 minute stretch of towpath you’re likely to pass numerous heritage structures ranging from smaller iconic items such as milestones, to working structures such as lock gates and swing bridges. Read More

Our canals and rivers are also lined with truly magnificent structures such as the Pontycysyllte Aqueduct and Anderton Boat Lift. If it’s size that matters to you, the canals are a great place to view historic engineering projects on a grand scale.

One of the best features of our heritage-rich canals is that they’re free to visit. You don’t have to pay a thing to come and walk along our towpaths and see 200 year old infrastructure at work. Why not use the search facility on this page and plan a day out by the canal?

Narrowboat crossing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
Narrowboat crossing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct