What is Bridgewater Canal?

The Bridgewater Canal is a navigable canal in the north west of England, connecting Runcorn and Manchester. Unusually, it is operated by the Manchester Ship Canal company, not by British Waterways.

The entire canal is on one level and has no locks. Cranes are located at intervals along the canal's length to allow boards to be dropped into slots in the canal banks. This allows sections of the canal to be isolated in the event of a leak.

The Route

The original section of the canal terminated at Castlefield Basin where boats used to unload their cargoes in Manchester city centre, and where there is now a connection to the later Rochdale Canal.

From Castlefield, the Bridgewater runs west through the Manchester suburbs for about four miles (7 km) to "Waters Meeting" junction: en route it passes Hulme Lock, now disused, which provided a connection to the River Irwell and the Manchester Ship Canal, and a new lock at Pomona giving access to the Manchester Ship Canal (the stretch of the MSC upstream from here is the only part easily used by leisure boats).

At Waters Meeting, the canal branches. The original canal travels north west for about 10 miles (16 km) to the original terminus in the village of Worsley at the entrance to the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater's coal mines via the Worsley Navigable Levels. On the way to Worsley it passes over the Manchester Ship Canal on the Barton Swing Aqueduct near Eccles. This section of the canal was later extended a further 5 miles (8 km) to Leigh where it makes an end-on connection with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

From Waters Meeting, the current main line of the canal (a later extension) runs approximately 20 miles south-west to Runcorn. This line goes through the towns of Sale and Lymm, passes to the south of central Warrington, and at Preston Brook junction, just short of Runcorn, a small branch connects with the Trent and Mersey Canal).

The canal now terminates in Runcorn basin, just before the disused locks which (before the approach road to the Widnes Bridge was built) used to lower the canal to the Runcorn Docks on the River Mersey (later, to the Manchester Ship Canal).

The proposed new road crossing of the Mersey may allow a realignment of the Bridge approach road and the complete restoration of the closed locks - thus re-opening of the link to Runcorn Docks, the Runcorn and Weston Canal, the River Mersey, the Manchester Ship Canal, and the River Weaver. This would create a new ring route for leisure boats involving the Trent and Mersey Canal, the Anderton Boat Lift and the River Weaver.

History

The Bridgewater Canal is often considered to be the first true canal in Britain, in that it relied on existing watercourses purely as sources of water rather than as navigable routes.

Note, however, that the Sankey Brook Navigation also has a claim to be the first modern British canal. Although the Company promoted the scheme as a "navigation" (ie simply making the existing Sankey Brook navigable), they actually constructed an entirely new channel alongside the Sankey Brook, simply using the Brook as a water supply. The Sankey Canal (not the first canal in Britain, but the first in the 'Industrial Revolution-fuelled Canal Building period') can therefore claim to be a modern canal built before the Bridgewater.

The Bridgewater Canal came about because the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, Sir Francis Egerton wanted an efficient way to transport coal from his coal mines at Worsley, into Manchester, where the Industrial Revolution was under way. Furthermore it solved the ongoing problem of flooding in these mines. In addition to easing the overland transport difficulties, the underground section of the canal at Worsley also removed the need for expensive and difficult vertical winding of the coal to the surface whilst providing drainage for the mines and a source of water for the surface canal.

The Duke commissioned James Brindley as canal engineer to build the canal, and it opened in 1761. At the time it was considered a major engineering achievement, as the canal contained a large aqueduct over the River Irwell (replaced by the Barton Swing Aqueduct when the Irwell was canalised as the Manchester Ship Canal), and it greatly enhanced Brindley's career. The Worsley part of the canal was later extended to Leigh, in 1799.

The Duke had invested a huge sum of his own money into constructing the canal, and it was a great financial success. Due to the greatly increased supply of coal which the canal had enabled, the price of coal in Manchester fell by nearly three quarters within a year of the canal opening. A few years later construction began of the route to Runcorn, which opened in 1772.

Inside the mines 46 miles (74 km) of underground canal on four levels linked by inclined planes was constructed. They were served by specially-built M-boats (also known as starvationers), the largest of which could carry 12 tons of coal. Mining ceased in 1887.^[1]

The canal carried commercial freight traffic until 1975, the last regular traffic being grain from Liverpool to Manchester for BOCM, and is now mainly used by pleasure craft. The canal also hosts two rowing clubs - Trafford Rowing Club and Manchester University Boat Club.

The canal has suffered three breaches: one soon after opening, one in 1971 near the River Bollin aqueduct^[2], and another in the summer of 2005 after a sluice gate failed in Manchester^[3]

The Bridgewater Canal is unusual because it is one of the few canals in Britain which is still privately owned and was never nationalised. This is because it was bought by the Manchester Ship Canal company in the 1890s, which itself was never nationalised for various reasons.

See also

• Canals of Great Britain
• Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, Somerset
• History of the British canal system

References

External links

• Bridgewater Canal website
• Bridgewater Canal map
• Website with description and photographs
• Duke of Bridgewater Archive from the University of Salford site
• Duke of Bridgewater's Underground Canal at Worsley
• Astley Green Colliery Museum
• Manchester Ship Canal Company website

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