The factory grounds were bordered by the Bridgewater Canal and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

The opening of the Sankey Canal in 1757, followed by the Bridgewater Canal in 1761, which halved the price of coal in Liverpool and Manchester England, respectively, triggered a period of " canal mania " in Britain so that between 1760 and 1820 over one hundred canals were built.

The first successful canal was the Bridgewater Canal in North West England, which opened in 1761 and was mostly funded by The 3rd Duke of Bridgewater.

New canals were hastily built in the aim of replicating the commercial success of the Bridgewater Canal, the most notable being the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Thames and Severn Canal which opened in 1774 and 1789 respectively.

* July 17-The first section of the Bridgewater Canal is opened, for the transportation of coal from local mines to Manchester.

" Originally used for moving coal on and off barges, " loose boxes " were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s, at places like the Bridgewater Canal.

* Bridgewater Canal, from Preston Brook ( and from Worsley ) to Manchester

They also petitioned to make an extension from Westhoughton to the Bridgewater Canal near Worsley but stopped when the occupant of Atherton Hall objected.

The second connection is made via the Bridgewater Canal, which it joins at Preston Brook in Cheshire.

In 1760, Lord Gower, a local businessman, and brother-in-law of the Duke of Bridgewater drew up a plan for the Trent and Mersey Canal.

James Brindley, the engineer behind many of the canals in England, did his first canal work on the Trent and Mersey, though his first job in charge of construction was on the Bridgewater Canal.

The northern end of the canal makes an end-on junction with the Bridgewater Canal within Preston Brook Tunnel, from which one can access Runcorn ( but no longer the Mersey or Ship Canal ) in one direction and Manchester ( with its many canal links ) in the other direction.

From the junction with the Bridgewater Canal, the T & M travels south through Preston Brook Tunnel ( one-way operation, alternating each half hour ) and two smaller tunnels at Saltersford ( since 2008 also one-way operation, alternating each half hour ), and Barnton to the " junction " with the River Weaver at Anderton Boat Lift near Northwich.

The boater can use the Macclesfield Canal to head for Marple, and the junction with the Peak forest Canal ( and hence, via the Ashton, Rochdale and Bridgewater canal ) to complete the ' Cheshire Ring '.

The resulting Bridgewater Canal, opened in 1761, is often regarded as the first British canal of the modern era ( though the Sankey Canal has a good claim to that title ), and was a major technical triumph.

He extended the Bridgewater to Runcorn, connecting it to his next major work, the Trent and Mersey Canal.

When he was 14, he ordered his first guitar from an Eaton's department store catalogue for $ 5. 95, and played his first show in a church basement in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia at age 16.

Plainfield was first settled in 1770, primarily by settlers from the town of Bridgewater, and was officially incorporated as a district within the Town of Cummington in 1785, and as a town on June 15, 1807.

The lands that would become East Bridgewater were first settled by Europeans in 1630 as an outgrowth of the Plymouth and Duxbury plantations.

West Bridgewater was first settled in 1651 as a part of Olde Bridgewater.

His teenage years were spent in Nova Scotia, and he got his first part time job at age 14 as a news correspondent for local radio station CKBW in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.

The claim for the first pure canal in the United Kingdom is debated between " Sankey " and " Bridgewater " supporters.

Donald Cabana, who served as a prison guard at Bridgewater prison and later became the superintendent of Mississippi State Penitentiary, said that the community promoted the fact that it was home to the United States's first normal school, while the prison was " often mentioned in less glowing terms.

* Nathaniel Ames, ( 1708 – 1764 ), born in Bridgewater, publisher of the first annual almanac

Vanzetti was first tried for the armed robbery in Bridgewater and convicted.

In 1927, advocates for Sacco and Vanzetti charged that this case was brought first because evidence against Vanzetti in the Braintree robbery was weak and a conviction for the Bridgewater crimes would help convict him for the Braintree crimes.

It was the terminus of the Bridgewater Canal, the world's first industrial canal built in 1764, with the oldest canal warehouse opening in 1779.

Unfortunately the Duke of Bridgewater died a few days before the first sailing, and nothing came of this order.

According to the will of the Duke of Bridgewater, the Egerton estates passed on the death of the first Duke of Sutherland to his third son Lord Francis Leveson-Gower, who changed his surname to Egerton by Royal license.

Today most of the duke's wealth is in the form of the art collection put together by the first duke's uncle, Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, which had been inherited by the Ellesmere line of the family.

These Bridgewater treatises first appeared during the years 1833 to 1840, and afterwards in Bohn's Scientific Library.

The Marquess held vast lands and wealth, having inherited from his father, the first Marquess of Stafford, from his maternal uncle, the second Duke of Bridgewater, and also holding much property associated with the Earldom of Sutherland, which belonged to his wife.

Bridgewater School was the most successful at A – level.

* In the field of business, Manhattan graduates include Sam Belnavis, NASCAR owner ; Bob Brennan, president & CEO of Iron Mountain ; Vincent dePaul Draddy, introduced Izod and Lacoste brands ; John M. Fahey, president and CEO of the National Geographic Society ; Frank M. Folsom, former president of RCA Victor ; John Horan ' 40, former chairman & CEO of Merck & Co .; Eugene R. McGrath, former chairman and CEO of Con Edison ; Thomas J. Moran, president and CEO of Mutual of America Life Insurance Company ; Thomas D. O ' Mally ' 63, successful commodities trader and former chairman & CEO of Premcor who created the modern independent refining industry ; Eileen Murray, co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates ; and Joseph M. Tucci, chairman, president and CEO of the EMC Corporation.

East Bridgewater is known for having a very successful and extensive athletic program but having an even better music program until 2008.

The construction of this canal was funded entirely by the Duke and was called the Bridgewater Canal.

Because of this huge increase in supply, the Bridgewater canal reduced the price of coal in Manchester by nearly two-thirds within just a year of its opening.

After the Bridgewater canal, the early canals were built by groups of private individuals with an interest in improving communications.

He built locks 72 feet 7 inches ( 22. 1 m ) long by 15 feet ( 4. 6 m ) wide when he extended the Bridgewater canal to Runcorn, where the canal's only locks lowered boats to the River Mersey.

One account states that Lord Dundas had advised Symington to prepare the model and bring it to his Lordship in London, where Symington was introduced to the Duke of Bridgewater who was enthusiastic enough to immediately order eight boats of similar construction for his canal.

He is remembered as the father of British inland navigation and commissioned the Bridgewater Canal, said to be the first true canal in Britain and the modern world.

In 1825 Giles, who was a pupil of John Rennie and involved in many canal projects of the period, had proposed a link from the Sankey, via an aqueduct across the Mersey, to the Bridgewater Canal and the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, but this was never implemented.

The canal ’ s immediate commercial success, followed soon after by that of the Bridgewater Canal, led to a mania of canal building, and for further extension schemes to be proposed for the Sankey Canal.

The extraordinary success of the Bridgewater Canal in North West England, completed in 1761, began an era of canal building in that country.

The canal and coal estates were placed under the control of the Bridgewater Trust, and in 1833 the rest of the estates were inherited by the Duke of Sutherland's son, Francis Leveson-Gower who changed his surname to Egerton, and in 1846 became the Earl of Ellesmere.

He is famous as the originator of British inland navigation, the commissioner of the Bridgewater Canal — often said to be the first true canal in Britain and the modern world ( see below for a qualification )— which was built for him by James Brindley to service his coal mines at Worsley, in Lancashire.

At the point where Deansgate and Chester Road ( A56 ) meet ( under the Bridgewater Viaduct ) the river meets the Bridgewater Canal head on, where a sluice gate ( a listed structure ) allowed water to feed the canal, until the water quality of the Medlock became too polluted for canal use.