The SOUTH MIDLAND WATER TRANSPORT LIMITEDCANALCARRYING PAGES

Even 20 years ago the thought that the embryonic leisure industrysaving the 'doomed' canals was unheard of. For 150 years they hadbeen a major transport network across the country, linking townsand cities with raw materials and finished goods, arms during wartimes, timber, cocoa, grain, coal, oil, roadstone in peace time,creating hundreds of jobs for boatmen, lengthsmen, controllersand yet always retaining an appearance of not being a part of theoutside world, being seperated by only a few feet of water yetbeing so far away.