'a navigable Branch, therein described, from the intended new Line of the said Canal.' The branch above-mentioned was intended to have been cut into Ighten Hill Park, near Burnley, for the purpose of opening a valuable bed of coal; but this has not been done. By this act several land-owners have a power to cut side branches in their own estates, subject to certain restrictions. They have also the power to make railways within one thousand yards of the canal.
The company is authorized to borrow, or raise amongst themselves, or by the admission of new subscribers, the further sum of £280,000, which is to be applied in paying off £101,394, being part of the £200,000 borrowed under the powers of the 39th George III. and in completing and finishing the said canal. They are also restricted by this act from taking more than twenty-six yards in breadth for the canal and towing-path, except in certain cases.
The works were now prosecuted with great vigour, and in May, 1796, the canal was opened for trade from the east end of the Foulridge Tunnel to Burnley, a distance of eight miles, in which space there is a lockage westwards of 70 feet. Again in April, 1801, the canal was opened for trade from Burnley to Henfield Warehouse, a distance of nine miles and thirty-seven chains, and level. In this seventeen miles and a half, from Foulridge to Henfield, is embraced the most expensive, as well as the most difficult work on the whole navigation, having cost no less than £120,000; but this sum includes for extraordinaries £40,000 for the tunnel at Foulridge; £9,000 for reservoirs there; £22,000 for an embankment at Burnley; and £10,000 for another tunnel of five hundred and fifty-nine yards in length, at a place called Ridge near the last-mentioned town.
During the succeeding nine years the execution of the canal proceeded slowly, but in June, 1810, another stretch of eight miles upon the same level, that is, from Henfield to Blackburn, was opened for trade. This last work and the remainder of the canal from Blackburn to Wigan was executed under the direction of Mr. J. Fletcher. And lastly, having completed the remainder of the canal, it was opened for trade in October, 1816, between Blackburn and Wigan, when vessels could then proceed direct from Leeds to Liverpool.
