 With the arrival of more favourable conditions , including the end of the war , a proposal for a canal to link the towns of Manchester , Bolton and Bury was mooted . Matthew Fletcher had in 1789 been employed as a technical advisor and had surveyed the route of the proposed canal , but the first public notice came from Manchester on 4 September 1790 . The initial proposal probably came from a group in Bolton , with the support of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company . A meeting was " intended to be holden at the House of Mr Shawe , the Bull 's Head in Manchester aforesaid , on Monday , the twentieth day of this instant , September , at eleven o 'clock in the forenoon " , where " Surveys , Plans , Levels , Estimates and Proposals " would be presented . A further meeting on 16 September , held in Bolton , appointed a committee of six <unk> chaired by Lord Grey de Wilton to attend at Manchester . A series of resolutions at this meeting followed a discussion of the route , and authorised the necessary actions to bring the plan into fruition , which included the petitioning of Parliament for the required bill . Hugh Henshall was asked to survey the proposed route of the canal . 
