Where and when was the first canal built in Britain?

It is commonly held that the first canal built in Britain was the Bridgewater Canal, commissioned by Francis Egerton, the third Duke of Bridgewater to carry coal from his mines at Worsley in Lancashire into the industrial areas of the city of Manchester. The engineer was James Brindley and it was seen as a miracle of the early industrial age. It opened in July 1761 and has its place in history as the first true canal to be built in Britain in that it did not follow an existing natural watercourse.

There are counter claims that the Sankey Canal, which was also built primarily to transport coal to serve the growing Liverpool chemical industry, was actually the first but there is no doubt that it was the Bridgewater Canal, or the "Duke's Cut", was the one that inspired an era of canal building that continued until the 1830s.