The geography of canals

Transportation resources: canals

The resources below are for Key Stage 3 students to explore the industrial heritage of canals and to place this in the larger context of Victorian canal expansion. Topics include the vital contribution that William Smith made in surveying for the canal and in developing the science of stratigraphy and geology in the 19th century.

The resources were published in celebration of the bicentenary of the publication of his famous geological map of the UK - the first ever of an entire country. They include a variety of physical, human, economic and issue-based teaching approaches.