Leeds and Liverpool Canal, The Straight Mile

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 20 Mar 2015

The Burnley Embankment, known locally as "The Straight Mile", carries The Leeds and Liverpool Canal 60ft above the town. When the canal was being built here at the end of the eighteenth century, Robert Whitworth, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company Engineer decided that an embankment, almost a mile long and up to sixty feet high, straight to the opposite hillside should be built rather than having the canal take a long detour following the contours around the valley, Although it was costly to construct, it meant the valley could be traversed by the canal without the need for two systems of locks. The embankment was constructed between 1796 and 1801, by an army of navvies using spoil brought by boat from the canal cutting to the north of Burnley and some of the excavations from the construction of the nearby Gannow Tunnel. Heavy clay was used to line the bed of the canal to stop the water leaking out. Nowadays, concrete would be used. The embankment, an innovative solution to the problems of canal engineering in its time, remains an impressive construction today. It is widely regarded as one of the "seven wonders" of the British Waterway System http://www.luphen.org.uk/canals/7wonders.htm .

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0