The new age of the canal: More passengers now than during the 18th century heyday

But canals were soon superseded by the steam train.

Now however, 200 years after their heyday, they are booming again.

A report reveals today that the number of boats on Britain's waterways is greater than at the height of the Industrial Revolution.

The merry new heyday of the canal: Holidaymakers are helping to make waterways busier than ever

And this time round leisure, not business, is driving the boom. In place of the old horse-drawn barge there is the refurbished narrow boat, cruiser or sailing dinghy.

Craft numbers on inland waterways rose to more than 31,000 last year and there was also a 13 per cent rise in members of the public using towpaths, the annual report from British Waterways said.

A total of 11million people visited the public corporation's 2,200-mile network of canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs last year for angling, cycling, walking, going to a waterside pub or simply to feed the ducks.

The growth is down in part to a £60million British Waterways-led canal building and restoration programme throughout the UK.

British Waterways chief executive Robin Evans said: 'The waterways today are being used and enjoyed in ways that few people could have imagined when they were built 250 years ago, or even when they were nationalised 60 years ago.

'The leisure use of the canals has been central to their revival but it is the adaptability of the network including the ways in which it remains relevant to canal-side communities which hold the key to a prosperous future.'

In their heyday the canals were heavily polluted industrial corridors. Now they are colonised by a wide variety of wildlife ranging from the water vole, dragonflies, herons and kingfishers to more unusual - and unwelcome - non-native species such as red-eared terrapins.

Although forms of the canal had existed for many centuries - the Romans created navigations such as the Fossdyke - it wasn't until the late 18th century that Britain acquired the unique network of canals and river navigations that we know today. The main canal arteries of the nation were built between 1760 to 1840.

Roads of the day were poor and one horse hauling a laden canal boat could carry far more than pack animals - and do so more quickly and safely.

By 1793, the country was in the grip of 'Canal Mania' as speculators clamoured to invest in canal schemes which they hoped would result in a quick-killing.

Pioneering engineers such as Thomas Telford became the heroes of the age, building waterways that crossed valleys on high aqueducts, climbed slopes or flights of locks.

By the mid 19th century almost all the major cities and towns had a canal.

But the the arrival of the railways spelt the death-knell for canals, which entered into a period of neglect and decline.

The 1962 Transport Act created the British Waterways Board to operate the network, which had been nationalised in 1948.

A spokesman for British Waterways said: 'Now, after decades of underfunding, half a century of campaigning and more than 150 years of decline, the waterway network is at last beginning to expand and thrive.'