The waterways revolution - Christine Richardson

Charting one of Britain's major steps toward industrial supremacy, this is an account of how the traders of Chesterfield and Retford - typical of groups throughout the country - planned a new transport and distribution system in the mid-18th century. It is the story of their dreams, the age in which they lived and the creation of their lasting monument - the Chesterfield Canal.;The book details the personal involvement of local citizens - the administrators, shareholders and clerks, the treasurers and those who supplied the original idea. These were the men who engaged the principal engineer, steered the necessary legislation through Parliament, sold and bought the canal company shares, and oversaw the everyday problems of a project that stretched the boundaries of engineering technology. Line drawings based on information from old documents are included, together with recent photographs, to provide an impression of the canal's early days, and the author also incorporates contemporary newspaper cuttings of local and national events, to offer a re-creation of the era.