This is not what you think. Me plugging away about ways with water, but rather, waterways. Yes, waterways, canals, barges, the whole patootie. Spread throughout the U.K.
In England and Wales, there are over 2 000 miles of waterways and they fall under the auspices of The Canal & River Trust.
In Scotland, there are just over 135 miles of canals and waterways – these treasures are under Scottish Canals.
Just to give an indication of how truly remarkable and diverse these waterways are, pictured above from left to right are:
The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland; the The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales and The Llangollen Canal between England and Wales.
The British canal system of water transport played a vital role in the United Kingdom’s Industrial Revolution at a time when roads were only just emerging from the medieval mud and long trains of pack horses were the only means of “mass” transit by road of raw materials and finished products. The UK was the first country to acquire a nationwide canal network. These waterways have been an integral part of U.K. history since Roman times.
The first British canals were built in Roman times as irrigation or land drainage canals or short connecting spurs between navigable rivers. In the Middle Ages a spate of building projects, such as castles, monasteries and churches, led to the improvement of rivers for the transportation of building materials. Various Acts of Parliament were passed regulating transportation of goods, tolls and horse towpaths for various rivers.
In the post-medieval period some natural waterways were ‘canalised’ or improved for boat traffic, in the 16th century. The first Act of Parliament was obtained by the City of Canterbury, in 1515, to extend navigation on the River Stour in Kent, followed by the River Exe in 1539, which led to the construction in 1566 of a new channel, the Exeter Canal. Simple flash locks were provided to regulate the flow of water and allow loaded boats to pass through shallow waters by admitting a rush of water, but these were not purpose-built canals as we understand them today.
Now, as yet, we at AquAid haven’t come up with a plan to ‘canal’ your super spring water to your premises or school, but we can assure you that our super spring water isn’t sourced from these canals (especially the ones that were built for drainage – ew.)
What we can say, with assurance, is that our bottle fed water coolers use only the tippy toppy spring water from one of three sources.
