Waterway to Travel
The Bridgewater Canal
As Manchester was transformed into the industrial giant it is famed for, it needed a transportation system large enough to cope with the increase in production in the area. The answer.... the canal system, of which the Bridgewater Canal is still in operation today.
Manchester??s Transformation
In the 1700??s Manchester??s evolution from a market town into a giant industrial town really took place. 1721, improvements were made to the Rivers Irwell and Mersey, and with the enforcement of the Mersey Irwell Navigation Act much larger vessels could now reach Manchester, which ensured Manchester??s development as an ??inland port??.
The Bridgewater Canal
Between 1759 and 1761, the engineer James Brindley constructed the forerunner of all modern waterways, the Bridgewater Canal at the authorisation of the Bridgewater Canal Act.
The Bridgewater linked Manchester to the coal mines in Worsley, as a regular and efficient supply of coal was necessary for an industrial town.
It was the Duke of Bridgewater who had instigated the building of the canal and the most difficult challenge to the engineer James Brindley was how the canal would cross the River Irwell. A complex and challenging system of locks had been suggested, but Brindley??s solution was to build an aqueduct over the Irwell.
The construction of the Manchester Ship Canal necessitated the removal of this early aqueduct and a modified version of Brindley??s aqueduct, the Barton Swing Aqueduct is still in operation today in Barton, Eccles.
Extension of the Canal
In 1761, the Bridgewater Canal was extended to Runcorn, on the Mersey, and it was the first of many canals to converge on Manchester. Other included canals to Bolton and Bury, the Ashton Canal, the Rochdale Canal and the Manchester Ship Canal.
This last, great canal allowed ships to go 36 miles inland from the Mersey estuary where the canal entered the Mersey through a lock at Eastham on the Wirral peninsula.
Submitted by: Iain Patterson, 12 March 2003
