Mersey and Irwell Navigation

Mersey and Irwell Navigation (1850)

Legend River Irwell Salford Shipyards Manchester and Salford Junction Canal Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal Branches to the Bridgewater Canal Throstle's Nest Lock Mode wheel lock Barton Lock Barton Aqueduct , Bridgewater Canal Stickings Lock Holmes Bridge Lock Calamanco lock Irwell River Mersey Sandywarps Lock Millbank Lock River Bollin Rixton Double lock Lymm arch flow Woolston Lock Powder Mill Lock Woolston New Cut / Old Cut Paddington Lock Latchford Lock Inflow from the Woolston Cut Howley Lock Runcorn and Latchford Canal Sankey Canal Sankey Brook Fiddlers Ferry Lock Old Quay Lock Widnes Lock, Sankey Canal River Mersey

The Mersey and Irwell Navigation was a canal and river link in north-west England . It made a navigable link from the mouth of the River Mersey to Salford and Manchester by connecting the Rivers Irwell and Mersey. Eight locks were built between 1724 and 1743 and the course of the rivers was changed through various openings. Shipping traffic on the route decreased from the 1870s and was eventually made redundant with the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal . The canal destroyed much of the navigation in the River Irwell area and the stretch between Latchford and Runcorn .

history

The plan to link the Mersey and Irwell Rivers for shipping between Liverpool and Manchester was first discussed in 1660, but not finalized until 1712. In 1720 a corresponding law was introduced into parliament and passed in 1721. The construction work was carried out by the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company between 1724 and 1734. The completion of the canal allowed boats to run from quays on Water Street in Manchester to the Irish Sea . The size of the ships was limited. During dry periods or when strong easterly winds pushed back the tides at the mouth of the River Mersey, fully loaded ships might not be able to navigate the route.

Eight locks had been built along the length of the route and various short breakthroughs were dug to bypass shallow sections of the river and closed with gates. Some arches in the rivers have been straightened. The route has been revised over and over again over time. A difficult to navigate section at Howley could be bypassed from 1804 by the so-called Runcorn and Latchford Canal . A harbor basin was set up at Runcorn to give ships a place to wait for more water when the water level is low.

The Bridgewater Canal, opened in 1776, and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened in 1830, faced serious competition. From the 1870s onwards, the shipping route deteriorated. Traffic decreased because the port of Liverpool was charging very high fees. It was cheaper to ship goods via Hull on the other side of England than via Liverpool. In addition, at the same time, Manchester’s industrial output fell sharply. Therefore, a plan was developed to build a canal between Liverpool and Manchester, which should allow seagoing ships to call Manchester directly and so halt the economic decline of the city.

The construction of the Manchester Ship Canal made Mersey and Irwell navigation obsolete. There was traffic on a section below Rixton until 1950. Today, a small section above the Pomona Docks of the Manchester Ship Canal is the only route that is still in operation, in many other places the route is now dry and no longer passable.

Web links

• Peter J. Whitehead, Mersey and Irwell Navigation on The Industrial Heritage of Britain

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• Edward Gray, Manchester Ship Canal, Sutton Publishing, 1997. ISBN 0-7509-1459-9
• Ian Harford, Manchester and its Ship Canal Movement, Ryburn Publishing, 1994. ISBN 1-85331-075-1
• David Elystan Owen, The Manchester Ship Canal, Manchester University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-7190-0864-6
• David Elystan Owen, Canals to Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-7190-2631-8