Transportation of raw materials to the manufacture sites, and of the finished clothing and linen from the centres of production in the Pennines in the centre of the country, was limited by the lack of large scale rivers.
This was overcome by the development of canals, starting with a navigation between the coal mine at Worsley, Derbyshire and the conurbations and ports of Manchester and Liverpool. This first British canal was built by James Brindley at the behest of the Duke of Bridgewater to transport coal from mines at Worsley, Derbyshire to factories in Manchester and to the ports on the River Mersey: it was thus named the Bridgewater Canal.
