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The Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire -

"in March 1720, Edward Hall “secured from Sir William Gerrard of Garswood a 30-year lease of Carr Mill, Ashton-in-Makerfield,"

“There was also a small private canal between the Stanley Copper Mill at Blackbrook (at the head of an arm of the Sankey Navigation) and the mills at Carr Pool (now called Carr Mill Dam, Dougie), higher up the Black Brook.”
"A navigable canal with a boat on it, operating on the half-mile stretch between the mill at Carr and those at Stanley."

So, there you have it, Dougie. A navigable canal with a boat on it, carrying corn and iron, operating on a half-mile stretch of canal between the mill at Carr and those at Stanley.
And that was operational BEFORE the opening of the Sankey Canal in 1757.

Also, the Sankey wasn't "the first man made canal dug out from scratch" as the Romans dug many canals in there near 400 year occupation of this island of ours. Apparently, there was "over 1300 miles of canal" before the Sankey opened.

And, don't forget, the Sankey Canal had been opened nearly a hundred years before St.Helens was invented! You St.Helensers, and your claims to fame, eh.!

PS: You can claim the 'World's First Mechanically Propelled Boat' was invented in (what is now) St.Helens if you want, I'll let you have that one.

World's first steam powered boat by John Smith, maiden voyage on Sankey Canal.