I GREW up about two miles from the Grand Union Canal and spent quite a bit of my childhood watching the narrowboats navigating their way through the locks.

Recently I returned to my favourite spot to find that it is still more or less the same, but tidier, and perhaps even a little busier.

Recently I was watching "Countryfile" on BBC TV where they showed how supermarket giant Tesco has spotted the potential of this "sustainable" transport and now carries crates of South American wine along the Manchester Ship Canal from the docks to a container terminal.

This got me thinking about how things change in response to demands and of how the change for canals has been from the service of industry to leisure with years of neglect in between, and now these rural watercourses might be taken over once again by the transportation of heavy goods. In this article I would like to explore these changes, and so I will start with the history of the canals.

In the eighteenth century England was much different than today and the only means of transporting goods was on foot or using horsepower. Roads were muddy and indeed treacherous for much of the year and navigable rivers limited. With the growth of industry a need arose for the transportation of coal from the mines to the factories in the north and central England. Canals were the perfect way to carry large, heavy loads safely using narrow boats and just a few horses. Similarly the manufacturers of goods, particularly of breakable items such as the newly popular luxury goods from the Potteries, needed reliable transportation and canals were seen as the answer.

By 1792 canal mania was in full swing and numerous short and several long, local canals were promoted and built around the country. They were built by private companies, often financed by the industries or manufactories that would use them, with little or no government interference. By 1824 the value of canal shares had increased three times. Unfortunately, no one anticipated the full cost of building the canals and in order to keep the profits high, many of them ended up being quite narrow. Similarly no one planned a full canal network and so links were fragmented, canal lock types different and charges for use widely varied.

When Queen Victoria came to the throne there were 2,477 miles of canals in Great Britain. Alongside the canals a whole infrastructure had grown up with canal-side inns at the major junctions, lockkeeper's, toll-clerks and lengthmen's* cottages and general stores selling provisions for the workers and tools for their craft including horsewhips and tow-lines.

But the canal "bubble" was about to burst. In the 1820s and 30s the first railway lines were opened providing much faster transport for heavy goods. As their wealth of the railway companies grew they started to buy up the canals and deliberately neglect them or impose restraints upon them such as the prohibition of steam-powered craft and the restriction on traffic on Sundays or at night. By 1872 the railway companies had acquired one-third of the waterways of England and Wales. After the 1939-45 War transport was nationalised and the canals came under the control of the government. Unfortunately, despite this and the formation of the Inland Waterway Association (IWA) in 1946, canals were still to be neglected. Loads transported on the waterways had shrunk from 42 million tons in 1905 to 10 million tons. The figure at the time was only 3 percent of the total carried on the railway. On the narrow canals, boats carrying just 25 tons continued to operate for another two decades until the final horse drawn narrowboat retired in the 1970s. Only the large waterways such as the Aire and Calder Navigation and the River Weaver continued carrying large amounts of goods.

The British Waterways Board was set up in 1962 to manage the canals and waterways and later in the decade, the Government proposed introducing a new Transport Act, which would have enabled them to close canals easily. The IWA and its supporters opposed the Act and their campaign was successful. The Government finally realised that people wanted to keep England's smaller canals, particularly for recreational use and alongside this was a growing interest in the history of the canals and their unspoilt beauty. In 1980 there were 3,100 miles of navigable inland waterways in England, which included the manmade canals, and few areas lacked waterway links with the rest of the country. However, it was noted that in addition to this there were "too many miles of derelict canals and formerly navigable rivers and drains".

Gradually, in many areas around the country, the potential of the canals for leisure and tourism began to be acknowledged. Following the example of the Norfolk Broads, the canals started to be used not just for tourism and holidays but also for towpath walks, angling and wildlife conservation. Since the 1990s, a number of canal restoration projects have been completed and many more are in process. Buildings on the canal sides have also been seen as perfect for restoration and redevelopment. There are even plans for new canals to be built to improve access to isolated parts of the canal system.

British Waterways, as a public corporation, now manage and care for more than 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of canals and rivers in England, Scotland and Wales. This special environment also includes more than 2,500 listed buildings and structures, 69 scheduled monuments, over 4,700 bridges, 1500 locks, 1,000 lock-keepers cottages and dwelling, nearly 400 aqueducts and 60 tunnels.

But British Waterways have recently been accused of showing more interest in riverside properties than in the potential of the waterways. Today the IWA is pushing for the use of the larger, wider, and particularly city-based canals for transportation of goods. British Waterways are not so keen, pointing out that the maximum speed is just 4 miles per hour and that the canals do not always have the right loading places.

Whatever the future I would hope that the Grand Union Canal of which the main branch runs for 137 miles from the River Thames at Brentford, over the Chiltern Hills, and on to Birmingham, does not become a major player in the supermarket green initiatives

* a lengthman was in charge of a particular length of waterway.