Worsley Navigable Levels
Coordinates: 53°30′2.2″N 2°22′52.2″W / 53.500611°N 2.381167°W
The Worsley Navigable Levels are an extensive series of coal mines in Worsley in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. They were worked largely by the use of underground canals (the navigable levels) and boats called starvationers.
Coal getting is known in the area from as early as 1376 but large-scale development was left until the tenure of Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater.
The first drainage sough was cut into the Earl of Bridgewater's estates in Worsley on the Manchester Coalfield in 1729 under the auspices of John Massey, the mines agent of Scroop Egerton, the 4th Earl and 1st Duke of Bridgewater. This sough was sited to provide drainage for as many mine works as possible in order to make its construction economic. The sough was 1,100 yards (1,000 m) long with 600 yards (550 m) underground. Water in the coal measures worked above the sough drained into it and deeper coal seams benefited because water needed to be lifted only to the sough not to the surface. This solution to the water drainage problem was successful and extensions of 450 yards (410 m) proceeded to allow other coal seams to be drained.
The Dukedom passed to Scroop Egerton's fourth son John on Scroop's death in 1745 and subsequently, when John died in 1748, to Scroop's fifth son Francis, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. Francis Egerton gained full control of his estates in 1757 when he was 21 and hired John Gilbert as factor for his estates. It was clear to Francis Egerton and John Gilbert that the Duke of Bridgewater's coalmines would need to be much more efficient and productive in order to meet the rise in demand for coal in Manchester. One part of their plan was to dig a canal, the Bridgewater Canal, from Worsley to Salford on the River Irwell. This idea would improve the transport of coal but not the efficiency of mining. They then had the idea of extending the canal at Worsley underground to produce a navigable level within the coal measures for both drainage and coal transport. A consequence of this decision was that the water from the coalmines proved sufficient to keep the canal in water.
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