Travel and transportation by water has been used for thousands of years and in all probability the river Mersey and the river Weaver on the north and western boundaries of Runcorn
respectively would have been used before the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the northwest of England.
Whilst not directly witnessed in Runcorn, for hundreds of years the river navigation in the higher reaches of the waterways would have been improved to allow small boats easier access and during the summer months by the construction of simple weirs, locks, and the cutting of navigations across oxbow loops in wide river valleys and estuaries.
Runcorn’s development and growth would not have been affected by these early waterway improvements but the coming of the canal age changed that picture completely.
The earliest recorded proposals for improvements on the higher reaches of the river Mersey and Irwell appear after 1710 when a ship canal was mentioned from Manchester to the sea but it was the activities of the Egerton family and their improvements both within their coal mines at Worsley, and the desire to transport the coal more quickly and cheaper to Manchester led to the start of the waterway improvements at Worsley Brook, on the river Douglas and Irwell and at Sankey Brook.
The Mersey and Irwell Navigation Scheme of 1721 must have increased the flow of traffic on the river Mersey and goods available at Runcorn, but it was to be a further 55 years before a canal reached Runcorn.
It took nearly a further 175 years before the canals we know today served Runcorn:
In historical order:-