 Cannel coal, which burns with a bright yellow flame, producing little ash, was being mined in the Wigan coalfield, and there was an increasing market for coal around the edges of the Irish Sea, but the industry was hampered by the lack of an efficient way to transport the coal to the coast.The roads were primitive, but the River Douglas ran from Wigan to the River Ribble below Tarleton, and in the early 18th century, there was growing interest in making it into a navigation.In 1712, Thomas Steers, a civil engineer and surveyor who had arrived in Liverpool in 1710 to work on building the docks, surveyed the Douglas and recommended that it be made accessible to ships, enabling the transport of coal from the coalfields around Wigan down to the Ribble, and onwards to Preston.