Giant's Basin

The stone walls of the Giant's Basin lock a deep rectangle of water into the brick landscape of Castlefield. This lock was the terminus of the Bridgewater Canal, built in seventeen sixty-one to haul coal from the Duke of Bridgewater's mines. When the canal opened, the price of coal in Manchester dropped by half overnight. On a busy day, horse-drawn barges queued here to unload their cargo, turning the basin into the primary engine for the city's early industrial growth.