Born in the space of just fifty years at the end to the 18th century, the canal age transformed the British landscape. Thronged with boats transporting raw materials and manufactured goods between factories and cities, the canals were among the most vital arteries of the industrial revolution. Today, however, mellowed by time and disuse, these waterways meander slowly through fields carrying boatloads of holiday makers, or lie disused and forgotten, tucked away in some overgrown and mysterious corner of the countryside.
Following the course of these canals, Martin Matrix Evans and Robert Reichenfeld toured England and documented these waterways from all aspects - and in all weathers. With over 130 photographs and a text rich in history, people and legends, this book captures the beauty of England's canals from the exquisite detail of a stone gargoyle on a crumbling Bath bridge to the magnificent sweep of the Rochdale Canal as it cuts through the Yorkshire countryside.
