The Sankey Canal in North West England used to be an industrial canal. It was called the Sankey Brook Navigation and later the St Helens Canal. Sankey Canal opened in 1757. It was the first modern canal. Earlier canals were all to make river navigation possible. The Act of Parliament passed in 1757 was to make Sankey Brook navigable. But the brook was too shallow and twisting to be of practical use, so they constructed a completely separate canal alongside the brook.[1] It connected St Helens to the River Mersey at Spike Island in Widnes.
It closed in 1963, but much of it has been restored. Fixed bridges which have replaced the original wooden swing bridges and other blocks separate the sections from one another.[2]