Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and Railways of Great Britain

13 George III. Cap. 16, Royal Assent 13th April, 1775.

This canal, which pursues a north-west direction, and is level throughout, was made at the expense of Sir Nigel Gresley [aged 48], Bart and Nigel Bowyer Gresley [aged 22], Esq. his son and heir-apparent, for the purpose of conveying the produce of their extensive coal mines in Apedale, in Staffordshire, to the town of Newcastle-under-Lyne, in the same county, and of facilitating their transit to other parts of the country by means of the Newcastle-under-Lyne Junction, and other navigations.

The act obtained as above, is entitled, 'An Act to enable Sir Nigel Greeley, Bart and Nigel Bowyer Gresley, Esq. his Son, to make and maintain a navigable Cut or Canal from certain Coal Mines in Apedale, to Newcastle-under-Lyne, in the county of Stafford." This act, after making the usual provisions, binds the proprietors for twenty-one years from and after the date thereof, to furnish the inhabitants of Newcastle with coals at 5s. per ton of twenty hundred weight, weighing one hundred and twenty pounds each hundred weight, and in like proportion for a single hundred weight. At the expiration of the first twenty-one years the proprietors, or their heirs, are to furnish coals at 5s. 6d. per ton for an additional term of twenty-one years; which last quoted price may, under certain conditions, be raised to 6s. per ton; the proprietors, in either case, binding themselves, under the penalty of £40 for each offence, to keep a supply of coals sufficient for the consumption of the town, at a wharf in or near the same.

There are few private works of more real utility to the public than Sir Nigel Gresley's Canal, which has added considerably to die interests of the inhabitants of Newcastle, by the regularity wherewith they are supplied with coal at a moderate charge.