De Thames is met een lengte van 344 kilometer de langste rivier van Groot-Brittannië. Deze rivier heeft nog steeds een grote betekenis voor de politiek, de handel en de recreatie van de Engelsen.
Van de bron tot de monding in de Noordzee zijn er voortdurend wisselingen van het landschap en de functie van de rivier. Ook 'Greater London' vormt een deel van de oevers van de Thames.
In de onderstaande Engelse tekst lees je er meer over:
Most of us equate the canals with leisure pursuits, whether it is boating, fishing or just walking along the towpaths. Our waterways were originally constructed, at immense investment and effort, to provide a valuable method of transporting heavy goods around the country.
River transport
The industrial revolution in the early 18th century created a need for the cheap transportation of raw materials to the factories and the distribution of finished goods. At first teams of horses pulled the heavy loads in carts, but the damage to the roads was so great that for much of the year they were impassable. As an alternative, river transport was tried with barges pulled by gangs of men. However, variations in river levels led to boats running aground and being stuck for days on end.
Canal into the mines
In 1759 the Duke of Bridgewater obtained an Act of Parliament to build a canal from his coalmines at Worsely to Manchester. A millwright, James Brindley, was employed to build the canal for the Duke and construction was carried out by gangs of men known as navigators (later abbreviated to 'navvies'). Using just hand tools, they built a canal that tunnelled right into the mines so that coal could be loaded directly on to the boats. When the canal opened, it became the wonder of the age and halved the price of coal in Manchester.
Railways
So began a period of 'canal mania' which reached a peak in 1793 when 20 canals were authorised by Parliament and even special light boats were built to transport passengers. The coming of the railways brought an end to the commercial use of the canals. They were used less and less for transporting goods and materials until, by the start of the 20th century, many canals had closed.
Competition
Diesel powered boats, introduced in the 1930s, gave some opportunity for the canals to compete against road transport and traffic continued throughout the 40s and 50s. However, this was killed off in the early 60s when a severe winter caused the canals to freeze up for nearly three months.
Pleasure
Though there had been a few holiday canal boats pre-war, it took LTC Rolt's famous book 'Narrow Boat', published during the war, to arouse public interest in the use of canals for pleasure. Since the 1960s this has become the main activity on the waterways and some previously closed canals have been re-opend. The canals are now maintained for the pleasure of all their users.