Map of England, Wales & Scotland  showing Cruising Canals & Rivers

British inland waterways are a network of over 2000m (3000km) of man made waterways which were built over 200 years ago. They include some rivers which have been made navigable over many hundreds of years. New engineering techniques had to be developed to build the inland waterways and canals made the Industrial Revolution possible by allowing goods and raw materials to be moved between the new ‘factories’ and the new ‘consumers’. When the railways took over that role, about 100 years ago, British inland waterways went into slow decline and now carry very little commercial cargo. However there are more boats afloat than ever before because canal cruising is such a popular leisure activity. Most canals are managed and maintained by British Waterways which is a public corporation and enthusiastically supports their leisure and tourism use.