At the end of the eighteenth century when the demands of the Industrial Revolution for cheap coal triggered a search for reduced transport costs, the need was seen for extending the Loughborough Navigation south along the River Soar to Leicester. Despite the problems which beset the scheme an Act was Passed in 1791 and the navigation opened in 1794. Opposition from west Leicestershire coal owners necessitated a branch to Loughborough and a further scheme for canalizing the River Wreake opened up east Leicestershire and the area around Melton Mowbray in 1795.

In this book Philip Stevens has traced the history of these navigations from difficulties with neighbouring navigations, and competition with the railways, to their decline, and in the case of the Melton Mowbray its demise.