MIDDLEWICH'S waterway could soon be joining the likes of the Taj Mahal and Stonehenge as a World Heritage Site.

The Trent and Mersey Canal has been put forward by a team of consultants as a potential addition to a list of worldwide sites which get protection from UNESCO, the United Nations Environmental Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

David Martin, of Heritage Associates, said: "This would recognise the important role the canal played in the history of transport and the salt industry.

"It was an extremely important channel of communication in the 18th and 19th centuries before the dawn of the railway age."

Now Mr Martin will try to persuade Heritage Minister Chris Smith to add the Trent and Mersey Canal, which runs through Middlewich, to a list of sites he has already put forward and he is hoping for support from Vale Royal Borough Council.

"There are quite a few World Heritage Sites in this country already," added Mr Martin.

"There are places like Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall, the Houses of Parliament and the city of Durham with its cathedral and university.

"But so far industrial and transport sites have been neglected."

The Trent and Mersey Canal took more than 600 men 11 years to build and has been put forward along with the Caldon Canal, which runs through the Pennines and the Potteries.

If the waterways are made World Heritage Sites, it will be international recognition for an engineering feat and the role the canals played in the industrial revolution.

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