Old barges ‘scuttled’ in 1800s ‘reappeared’ when canal basin drained

Boothstown Basin, Bridgewater Canal, 1991 (Picture: Newsquest)The basin, built as a coal loading area as part of the Bridgewater Canal almost 200 years earlier, was being drained and refurbished as part of a new housing development.

As the water level dropped a dozen barges were being uncovered.

The barges were believed to have been deliberately ‘scuttled’ in the early part of the 1800s as a convenient way of disposing with them when they became too old or were simply not needed any more.

Archaeologists had been called in to examine the craft being exposed.

Source – INDIA TV