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Description: | Fountain. Brick with stone dressings. Central carved stone bowl on scrolled pedestal stands on platform of 4 steps. Surrounded by brick superstructure (base of former canal works chimney) which has arched openings in each side, diagonal butresses and an entablature with debased triglyphs, a cornice and a pierced parapet. Additional Information: Francis Egerton, third Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803), canal and mining entrepreneur, was the younger son of the first duke, Scroop Egerton, and his second wife, Lady Rachel Russell, daughter of the duke of Bedford. His father died when he was small, and at the age of twelve he inherited the title on the death of his brother. After his engagement to Elizabeth, duchess of Hamilton, broke down he left London and settled on his Lancashire property at Worsley Old Hall near Salford where he devoted his time to the development of its resources. In 1759 he obtained an act of parliament authorising him to develop a canal from Worsley to Salford. His initial plan of using the path of the Irwell was modified by the engineer James Brindley, whose successful scheme to carry the canal over the Irwell via an acqueduct, completed in 1761, made the Bridgewater canal the first in England which throughout its course was independent of a natural stream. He again co-operated with Brindley on the extension of his canal network from Longford Bridge to Runcorn, thereby linking Manchester and Liverpool. Its length (28 miles, and nearly three times as long as the Worsley canal) proved vastly expensive, but by 1772 the entire length of the canal was open. He also spent £170,000 on the development of his coal mines, making underground canals ("the Delph") at Worsley, now flooded, to link the mines and Manchester coal markets.(2) | Subjects: | Drinking Fountain | Source: | Vads | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=7550... | Go to resource |
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