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Just read a good book about leeds liverpool by Mike Clarke.
The History of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal

Originally the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was not going to serve the larger towns of East Lancashire. It was planned to follow a route through Padiham, to the north of the River Calder, crossing into the Ribble Valley over an aqueduct at Whalley Nab. Limestone was thought to be the canal’s most important traffic, and this route would have enabled the quarries at Clitheroe to be served by a branch.
The canal was expensive to build, and only the sections from Leeds to Gargrave and from Liverpool to Wigan were opened by 1777 when money ran out. Because of the American War of Independence, it was another thirteen years before money for further work could be raised. By that time the canal company had discovered that coal had become a more important cargo than lime. The builders of the canal now wanted to serve the growing industrial towns of East Lancashire and the local coalfield, so the route of the canal was altered to pass through Burnley and Blackburn. The canal reached Burnley in 1796 and was extended to Enfield Wharf, near Accrington, in 1801, some 31 years after construction of the canal had been begun.
As the Leeds and Liverpool Canal winds its tortuous way through East Lancashire it seems to carefully avoid Accrington. However, when the canal’s route through East Lancashire was planned in 1793, it was to continue up the valley of the Hydburn, crossing it at a point close to the old Grammar School on Blackburn Road. The proposed Haslingden Canal was to join it here, creating a waterway link with Bury and Manchester. Had this happened there would have been a wharf near the junction where goods to and from the town could have been handled.
Instead the route was altered. The Peel family asked the canal company to avoid crossing the Hyndburn above their textile print works at Peel Bank. At that time it was one of the largest factories in the world and used the river's waters during the printing process. Building the embankment for the canal to cross the Hyndburn would have interrupted this supply and caused production problems. Instead, the canal was built downstream, rejoining the original line at a right angle junction at Church.
Much of the land for the canal deviation had to be purchased from the Petre family of Dunkenhalgh. Although they were quite happy for the canal to be built, they requested that the towpath was made on the side of the canal away from their house and lands.They hoped that this would prevent poachers from gaining easy access to their estate!
A further nine years were to pass before the canal opened to Blackburn as there were difficulties in crossing the many rivers and streams around Church, and the deep cutting at Sidebeet also took time to complete.
The canal finally reached Blackburn in 1810, forty years after the construction of the canal had begun. Seven boats were reported as sailing in procession from Enfield to Blackburn on the occasion of the opening; two children and three men fell into the water, and one man seriously injured his hand whilst firing a small cannon as the boats arrived at Eanam Wharf.