Starvationer at Ellesmere Port Canal Museum

Legging is a method of moving a boat through a canal tunnel or

adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) or stulm is a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage to an underground mine. Miners can use adits for access, drainage, ventilation, and extracting minerals at the lowest convenient level. Adits are a ...

containing water. This method of navigating through canal tunnels and adits was commonly used in canal tunnels during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Legging in canal tunnels

Tunnel Entrance Gates at Diggle - geograph

Early

canal tunnels Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface f ...

were built without a

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, Working animal, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mod ...

as this would require a much larger bore, and hence cost more to build. Prior to the introduction of motorised boats, legging was one of the few options for getting a boat through such a tunnel. Two people were required. They would lie on a plank across the bows of the boat, and holding the plank with their hands, would propel the boat with their feet against the tunnel wall. This was quite a dangerous activity and resulted in many deaths. In later years 'wing' boards were hooked on to the boat to make the operation safer. At Crimson Hill tunnel, alternate stones in the walls were recessed to provide better tread for the leggers. While the boat was being legged through the tunnel, the horse would be led over the hill. On short tunnels the legging was done by the boat owner and crew. At long tunnels, professional leggers were available, such as at

Blisworth Tunnel Blisworth Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Grand Union Canal in Northamptonshire, England, between the villages of Stoke Bruerne at the southern end and Blisworth at the northern end. Measurements The northern end is about from the northern e ...

and

Dudley Tunnel Dudley Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Dudley Canal Line No 1, England. At about long, it is now the second longest canal tunnel on the UK canal network today. ( Standedge Tunnel is the longest, at , and the Higham and Strood tunnel is no ...

. At the 3 mile long Standedge Tunnel expert leggers could get an empty boat through in 1 hour 20 minutes, taking 3 hours with a full load, for which they were paid 1s 6d. At Blisworth the boatmen were often terrorised into employing leggers, so in 1827 the leggers were registered and issued with brass armlets for identification. At Standedge Tunnel, the use of official leggers eventually became a requirement for passage. At Morwellham, boatmen were said to have pushed against the tunnel roof. This tunnel has a considerable flow of water through it, and progress was very slow in one direction.Hedges, Carolyn. "The Tavistock Canal", Dartington Amenity Research Trust, 1975 Berwick Tunnel on the

Shrewsbury Canal The Shrewsbury Canal (or Shrewsbury and Newport Canal) was a canal in Shropshire, England. Authorised in 1793, the main line from Trench to Shrewsbury was fully open by 1797, but it remained isolated from the rest of the canal network until 183 ...

, opened in 1797 was the first tunnel to be built with a towpath, negating the need for legging. Legging was also the main form of propulsion used in the man-made adits in

Speedwell Cavern Speedwell Cavern is one of the four show caves in Castleton, Derbyshire, Castleton, Derbyshire, England. The cave system consists of a horizontal lead miners' adit (a level passageway driven horizontally into the hillside) below ground leadin ...

until the boats were given electric motors. Sometimes the guide will switch off the boat's engine and leg along the roof of the cave to demonstrate how the boats used to be worked by miners. They got paid £11.05 in today's money.

References

External links

''Towpaths in Tunnels''
List of canal tunnels, lengths and towpath status. Accessed 17 September 2007. {{refend