Canals: The Making of a Nation

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The series is divided into 6 parts, exploring different aspects of the influence of canals in the British economy. They are Engineering, Geology, Capitalism, The Workers, The Boat People and Heritage. We focus on the Manchester Ship Canal - the swansong for the navvies and hailed as the greatest engineering feat of the Victorian Age. The navvies worked at a time of rising trade unionism. But could they organise and campaign for a better deal? Since May 2017, Liz also holds the position of Manager at the Co-operative Heritage Trust, managed by the Co-operative College in Manchester.

Liz McIvor looks at who built the nation's canal network, who funded it, those who worked on it and how they were regenerated following WWII.​They gained a reputation as troublesome outsiders, fond of drinking and living a life of ungodly debauchery. But who were they? Unreliable heathens and outcasts, or unsung heroes who used might and muscle to build canals and railways? Liz has two children. Their names are Xander (Alexander) McIvor and Reah Jennifer McIvor. Reah was born in August 2010. The men who built our canals - the navigators or 'navvies' - were an 'army' of hard physical men who were capable of enduring tough labour for long hours. Many roved the countryside looking for work and a better deal. They gained a reputation as troublesome outsiders, fond of drinking and living a life of ungodly debauchery. But who were they? Unreliable heathens and outcasts, or unsung heroes who used might and muscle to build canals and railways? The 1800s were a time of organised labour and campaigns for better working conditions. Friedrich Engels wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England in Manchester, where socialism and revolution were seen as an answer to the injustice faced by workers. By this time, the disparate and disorganised navvies had mostly moved across to the railway construction which had superseded the declining canal building industry. However, there was still the Manchester Ship Canal to complete - the swansong for the navvies and hailed as the greatest engineering feat of the Victorian Age. Her inspiration to work in heritage preservation sparked at a young age when she saw the ‘Lindow Man’ at the Manchester Museum. The curator of the museum at the time talked about the specimen with such vigour that Liz became fascinated.

There are six episodes in total with themes including engineering, geology, capitalism, heritage, geology, the boat people and the workers. This is the story of the men who built our canals - the navigators or 'navvies'. They represented an 'army'of hard physical men who were capable of enduring tough labour for long hours. Many 'roved' the countryside looking for work and a better deal.Civil engineering flourished in the era of canals, alongside advances in scientific understanding about the materials and methods engineers could use to build their industrial utopia. The money being made in the industrial revolution gave the early civil engineers a strong motivation to ‘make things work’ at all odds. The hills of the Pennines were a 2000ft high problem, and the hives of industry in Yorkshire and Lancashire needed to be connected – but how? Liz often delivers talks about the history of transportation and the role of technology in logistics that acted as a catalyst for the Industrial Revolution. One of her more notable talks was done at the Manchester branch of the Inland Water Association’s Annual Winter Talks series. McIvor began her career as a curatorial assistant at Quarry Bank Mill, a former cotton mill in Cheshire.