Manchester Ship Canal

Manchester Ship Canal
Mode Wheel Locks as seen from the Imperial War Museum North
Principal Engineer	Thomas Walker
Date of Act	5 August 1885
Construction Began	1887
Date of first use	1 Jan 1894
Date Completed	7 December 1893
Maximum Boat Length	600 ft 0 in (182.9 m) (Regularly limited to 530 feet (160 m))
Maximum Boat Beam	65 ft 0 in (19.8 m) (Regularly limited to 53.5 feet (16.3 m))
Start Point	Eastham Locks
End Point	Manchester
Connects to	River Mersey, River Irwell, Bridgewater Canal, Shropshire Union Canal
Locks	5
Length	36 miles (58 km)
Status	Open
Navigation Authority	Manchester Ship Canal Company

The canal at Barton-on-Irwell looking SE with the Bridgewater Canal swing aqueduct (left) and the Barton Road Swing Bridge (right)

The Manchester Ship Canal is a 36-mile (58 km) long river navigation in North West England. Designed to give the city of Manchester direct access to the sea, it was built between 1887 and 1894 at a cost of about £15 million (£1.27 billion as of 2011), and in its day was the largest navigation canal in the world.

The canal generally follows the original route of the rivers Mersey and Irwell, and along its course uses several sets of locks. The canal is able to accommodate a range of vessels, from coastal ships to inter-continental cargo liners, but it is not large enough for all modern vessels. A railway was built to transport goods to and from the docks located alongside the canal.

The canal is no longer considered to be an important shipping route, but it still carries about 6 million tons of freight each year. It is now operated under private ownership.

History

Early history

The Lowry Footbridge over the canal at Salford Quays and Exchange Quay from the Imperial War Museum North

A cartoon published in the satirical magazine Punch in 1882, ridiculing the idea that Manchester could become a major seaport

The idea that the rivers Mersey and Irwell should be made navigable from the Mersey Estuary in the west to Manchester in the east was first proposed in 1660, and revived in 1712 by Thomas Steers.^[1] However it was not until 1720 that the necessary bills were proposed. The Act of Parliament^[2] for the navigation was received in 1721.^[3][4] Construction work was undertaken by the Mersey & Irwell Navigation Company.^[1] Work began in 1724, and by 1734 boats "of moderate size" could make the journey from quays near Water Street in Manchester, to the Irish Sea.^[5] The navigation was suitable only for small ships, and during periods of drought or when strong easterly winds held back the tide in the estuary, there was not always sufficient draft for a fully laden boat.^[6] The completion in 1776 of the Bridgewater Canal, followed by the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830, created increased competition for the carriage of goods. In 1825 an application had been made to Parliament for an Act to sanction the construction of a ship canal between the mouth of the River Dee and Manchester at a cost of £1 million but the Bill was not passed as "the necessary forms had not been observed".^[7] In 1844 ownership of the Mersey & Irwell Navigation was transferred to the Bridgewater Trustees, and in 1872 it was sold to The Bridgewater Navigation Company for £1.112 million (£73.6 million as of 2011).^[8][9] The navigation had by then fallen into disrepair; in 1882 it was described as being "hopelessly choked with silt and filth",^[9] and was open to 50-ton boats for only 47 out of 311 working days.^[9]

Along with deteriorating economic conditions in the 1870s,^[10] the dues charged by the Port of Liverpool and the railway charges from there to Manchester were perceived as excessive; it was often cheaper to import goods from Hull than it was from Liverpool.^[11] A ship canal was proposed as a way to reduce carriage charges, avoid payment of dock and town dues at Liverpool and by-pass the three Liverpool to Manchester railways, by giving Manchester direct access to the sea for its imports and its exports of manufactured goods.^[12] Historians such as Ian Harford have suggested that the canal may also have been conceived as an "imaginative response to [the] problems of depression and unemployment" that Manchester was experiencing during the early 1880s.^[13]

The canal was championed by Manchester manufacturer Daniel Adamson, who arranged a meeting at his home in Didsbury on 27 June 1882. He invited the representatives of several Lancashire towns, local businessmen and politicians, and two civil engineers: Hamilton Fulton and Edward Leader Williams. Fulton proposed a tidal canal, with no locks and a deepened channel into Manchester; Williams was in favour of a series of locks. Both engineers were invited to submit proposals, and Williams' plans were selected to form the basis of a bill submitted to parliament in November 1882.^[14] However, due to intense opposition by Liverpool and the railway companies, the necessary enabling Act of Parliament was not passed until 6 August 1885. Certain conditions were attached; £5 million had to be raised, and the ship canal company was legally obliged to buy both the Bridgewater Canal and the Mersey & Irwell Navigation within two years.^[15] The estimated cost of construction was £5.16 million (£413 million as of 2011), and the work was expected to take four years to complete.^[8][14]

Financing

Cheque dated 3 August 1887, in the amount of £1,710,000, for the purchase of the Bridgewater Navigation Company. At the time it was the largest cheque that had ever been presented.^[16]

The enabling Act of Parliament stipulated that the ship canal company's entire share capital of £8 million had to be issued within two years, otherwise the act would lapse.^[17] Adamson wanted to encourage the widest possible share ownership, and he believed that the funds should be raised largely from the working population. Richard Peacock, the vice-chairman of the Provisional Manchester Ship Canal Committee, had said in 1882:

No few individuals should be expected to subscribe and form a company for mere gain; it should be taken on by the public; and if it is not ... I for one should say drop the scheme ... unless I see the public coming forward in a hearty manner.^[18]

The enabling act did not allow the company to issue shares of less value than £10 and so, to make them easier for ordinary people to buy, shilling coupons were issued in books of ten so that the shares could be paid for in instalments.^[19] However, by May 1887 only £3 million had been raised. The contractor chosen to construct the canal, Thomas Walker, agreed to accept £500,000 of the contract price in shares, but raising the remainder required another Act of Parliament to allow the company's share capital to be restructured as £3 million of ordinary shares and £4 million of preference shares.^[17] Adamson remained convinced that the money should be raised from ordinary members of the public, and he opposed the capital restructuring, resigning as chairman of the Ship Canal Committee on 1 February 1887. A prospectus for the sale of the preference shares was issued jointly by Barings and Rothschild on 15 July, and by 21 July the issue had been fully underwritten.^[20] Construction of the canal began on 11 November 1887, when Lord Egerton of Tatton, who had taken over the chairmanship of the Manchester Ship Canal Company from Adamson, cut the first sod.^[21]

The canal company exhausted its capital of £8 million in 4 years, although only half the construction work had been completed.^[22] To avoid bankruptcy the company appealed for funds to Manchester Corporation, which set up a Ship Canal Committee. On 9 March 1891 the corporation decided, on the committee's recommendation, to lend the necessary £3 million to preserve city's prestige. In return the corporation appointed 5 of the 15 members of the board of directors.^[22] The company subsequently raised its estimates of the cost of completion in September 1891 and again in June 1892. An executive committee was appointed as an emergency measure in December 1891, and on 14 October 1892 the Ship Canal Committee resolved to lend a further £1.5 million on condition that Manchester Corporation had an absolute majority on the canal company's board of directors and its various sub-committees.^[22] The corporation subsequently appointed 11 of the 21 seats,^[23] nominated Alderman Sir John Harwood as deputy director of the company, and secured majorities on five of the board's six sub-committees.^[24]

Construction

Barton Swing Aqueduct in the closed position

Official opening by Queen Victoria (from The Illustrated London News)

Thomas Walker was appointed as the contractor for the construction of the canal, and the work was overseen by the chief engineer and designer Edward Leader Williams. The canal's 36-mile (58 km) length was divided into eight sections, with an engineer responsible for each. The first section was from Eastham to Ellesmere Port. Mount Manisty, a huge mound of earth northwest of Ellesmere Port on a narrow stretch of land between the canal and the Mersey, was created from the soil extracted by the excavations in thar area. It and the adjacent Manisty Cutting were named after the engineer in charge of that section. The last section to be built was from Weston Point through the Runcorn gap to Norton, as the existing docks at Runcorn and Weston had to be kept operational until they could be connected to the completed western sections of the ship canal.^[25]

For the first two years, construction went according to plan, but on 25 November 1889 Walker died. Initially the work was continued by his executors, but the project began to suffer a number of setbacks, not helped by severe weather and several serious floods. In January 1891, when the work ought to have been completed, a severe winter added to the difficulties when the Bridgewater Canal, the canal company's only source of income, was closed by ice. The company decided to take over the contracting work itself, and bought all the equipment on site for £400,000.^[26]

The canal was finally completely filled with water in November 1893, and opened to its first traffic on 1 January 1894. On 21 May 1894 Queen Victoria visited to perform the official opening. The Queen knighted the mayor of Salford, William Henry Bailey and the lord mayor of Manchester, Anthony Marshall at the opening of the Canal,^[27] during the last of three royal visits she made to Manchester. Edward Leader Williams was knighted on 2 July by Letters Patent.^[27] In December 1893, the Manchester Ship Canal Police were formed.^[28]

The canal took six years to complete, at a cost of just over £15 million,^[29] and was, on completion, the largest navigation canal in the world.^[30] More than 54 million cubic yards (41,000,000 m³) of material were excavated, about half as much as was removed in the building of the Suez Canal.^[31] An average of 12,000 workers were employed during construction, peaking at 17,000.^[32] Regular navvies were paid at a rate of 4 ¹⁄₂d per hour for a 10-hour working day, equivalent to about £70 per day as of 2009.^[33][34] In terms of machinery, the scheme called upon over 200 miles (320 km) of temporary rail track, 180 locomotives, over 6,000 trucks and wagons, 124 steam-powered cranes, 192 other steam engines, and 97 steam excavators.^[35][36] Major engineering landmarks of the scheme included the Barton Swing Aqueduct, the first and only swing aqueduct in the world,^[37] and a neighbouring swing bridge for road traffic at Barton, both of which are now Grade II* listed structures.^[38]

In 1909, the water level in the canal was raised by 2 feet (0.61 m), increasing the canal's depth to 28 feet (8.5 m), to match that of the Suez Canal.^[39]

Operational history

A cargo ship heading west out of Irlam locks towards the Mersey and Irish Sea

Since opening in 1894 the canal has handled a wide range of ships and cargos, from coastal vessels to intra-European shipping and inter-continental cargo liners. The first vessel to unload its cargo on the opening day was the Pioneer of the Co-operative Wholesale Society,which was also the first vessel registered at Manchester. The CWS operated a weekly service to Rouen.^[40] Although some other shipowners brought their vessels to Manchester, it was Manchester Liners who established regular sailings by large ocean-going vessels. In late 1898 the Manchester City, 7,698 gross tons, became the largest vessel to reach the terminal docks. Carrying cattle and general cargo, it was met by the Lord Mayor of Manchester and a large welcoming crowd.^[41]

In 1974, the canal handled 2.9 million tons of dry cargo, 783,000 tons (27 percent) of which was carried by Manchester Liners.^[42] The dry tonnage was, and is still, greatly supplemented by crude and refined oil products that are transported in large tanker ships to and from the Queen Elizabeth II Dock at Eastham and the Stanlow Refinery just east of Ellesmere Port, and also in smaller tankers to Runcorn.

Route

The ship canal alongside the Mersey between Stanlow and Runcorn, looking east

Manchester Ship Canal map

River Mersey Eastham Locks Weston Marsh Lock Weaver Navigation Weston Mersey Side Lock (closed) Delamere Lock Weaver Navigation Bridgewater Side Lock (closed) Runcorn Docks Bridgewater Canal junction (blocked) Runcorn Railway Bridge Silver Jubilee Bridge Old Quay Side Lock (closed) Old Quay Swing Bridge Moore Lane Swing Bridge Acton Grange Railway Viaduct Chester Road Swing Bridge London Road A49 Swing Bridge Cantilever High Level Bridge Knutsford Road Swing Bridge Latchford Railway Viaduct Latchford Locks M6 motorway Thelwall Viaduct River Mersey leaves canal route Warburton Bridge Cadishead Railway Viaduct (disused) River Mersey joins canal route Manchester to Liverpool line Irlam Container Terminal Irlam Locks Barton Locks M60 motorway Barton High Level Bridge Thirlmere Aqueduct (buried pipeline) Barton Swing Bridge Barton Swing Aqueduct Centenary Lift Bridge Mode Wheel Locks Salford Quays Trafford Road Swing Bridge Trafford Road Manchester Metrolink Pomona Docks Bridgewater Canal Woden Street Bridge, Salford Junction of canal and River Irwell

Geography

From Eastham, the canal runs parallel to, and along the south side of, the River Mersey, past Ellesmere Port and, having intercepted flows from the River Weaver, through the Runcorn Gap between Runcorn and Widnes and to the south of Warrington. Between Rixton, east of the M6 motorway's Thelwall Viaduct and Irlam the canal follows the route of the Mersey – with some old meanders now isolated from the canal – and between Irlam and Salford it follows the course of the River Irwell.

Locks

The terminal docks are 60 feet (18 m) above sea level, therefore several sets of locks are required.^[43] Each set has a large lock for ocean-going ships and a smaller, narrower lock for vessels such as tugs and coasters.^[44] The entrance locks at Eastham on the Wirral side of the Mersey, which seal off the tidal estuary, are the largest on the canal. The larger lock is 600 feet (180 m) long by 80 feet (24 m) wide; the smaller lock is 350 feet (110 m) by 50 feet (15 m). Four additional sets of locks further inland, 600 feet (180 m) long and 65 feet (20 m) wide and (350 feet (110 m) by 45 feet (14 m) for the smaller lock),^[45] each have a rise of approximately 15 feet (4.6 m).^[43] The locks are at Eastham; Latchford, near Warrington; Irlam; Barton near Eccles and Mode Wheel, Salford.^[44]

Docks and wharfs

Seven terminal docks were constructed for the opening of the canal. Four small docks were located on the south side of the canal near Cornbrook, within the Borough of Stretford and named Pomona Docks No.1, No.2, No.3 and No.4. The three main docks were located within Salford and were built primarily for large ocean-going vessels. These were situated to the west of Trafford Road on the north bank of the canal and were named No.6, No.7 and No.8. In 1905, No.9 Dock was completed on the same site.^[46] Dock No.5, or Ordsall Dock was part of the Pomona Docks, but was dug on the Salford side of the river; it was never completed and was filled in around 1905.^[47]

Pomona Docks have been filled in and to large extent remain derelict, but number 3 dock remains intact and has a lock connecting the ship canal to the Bridgewater Canal, which runs parallel to it at this point. The western four docks have been converted into the Salford Quays development and can no longer be used as shipping docks. Ships using the Manchester Ship Canal now dock at various places along the canal side, such as Mode Wheel (Salford), Trafford Park, and Ellesmere Port.^[48] Most vessels have to terminate at Salford Quays, although smaller vessels can continue up the River Irwell to Hunts Bank, near Manchester Cathedral.^[49]

In 1893 the Ship Canal Company sold a piece of land, just east of the Mode Wheel locks, to the newly established Manchester Dry Docks Company. The graving docks were constructed adjacent to the south bank of the canal, and a floating pontoon dock was located nearby.^[50] Each of the three graving docks could accommodate ocean-going ships of up to 535 feet (163.1 m) in length and 64 feet (19.5 m) in beam,^[51] equivalent to vessels of 8,000 gross tons. Manchester Liners acquired control of the company in 1974 to ensure facilities for the repair of their fleet of ships.^[52]

Other features on the banks

In 1984 Salford City Council acquired Salford Docks from the Ship Canal Company by the use of a derelict land grant,^[53] and the area was rebranded as Salford Quays. Redevelopment by principle developers Urban Waterside began in 1985 under the Salford Quays Development Plan.^[54] The Lowry today stands at the end of Pier 8, largely surrounded by the waters of the Manchester Ship Canal. Designed by James Stirling and Michael Wilford,^[55] it opened on 28 April 2000 and houses the 1,730-seat Lyric Theatre, the 466-seat Quays Theatre, a range of studio spaces and 17,330 square feet (1,610 m²) of gallery space. In addition there are cafes, bars, and a restaurant at the southern end of the building with views over the water to Libeskind's Imperial War Museum North.^[56]

At Ellesmere Port the canal is joined by the Shropshire Union Canal, at the site of the National Waterways Museum. The area consisted formerly of a canal port that covered an area of 7 acres (3 ha), linking the Shropshire Union Canal with the River Mersey. It was designed by Thomas Telford under the direction of William Jessop and continued to function as a working canal port until the 1950s. The canal port consisted of a system of locks, docks and warehouses, together with a pump and engine room.^[57] A toll house was built in 1805.^[58] The Island Warehouse was built in 1871 to store grain.^[59]

Features

The Manchester Ship Canal is the eighth-longest ship canal in the world, only slightly shorter than the Panama Canal in Central America. It enabled the Port of Manchester to become Britain's third busiest port, despite being about 40 miles (64 km) inland.^[60]

Manchester Ship Canal Railway

A preserved Manchester Ship Canal 0-6-0T Locomotive

To service the large amount of freight being landed at the canal's docks the Manchester Ship Canal Railway was created to carry goods from nearby industrial estates, including Trafford Park, and connect to the various railway companies near the canal. The MSC Railway, unlike most other railway companies in the UK, was not nationalised in 1948; it became the largest private railway system in the British Isles, with 790  employees,^[62] 75 locomotives, 2,700 wagons and over 200 miles (320 km) of track.^[63]

The MSC Railway was able to receive and despatch goods trains to and from all the UK main line railway systems using connecting junctions at three points in the terminal docks. Two were to the north of the canal operated by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the London and North Western Railway and one was to the south operated by the Cheshire Lines Committee.^[62] There was a railway swing bridge over the canal near No.6 dock that linked the MSC lines on either side of the canal.

Many of the MSC steam locomotives were 0-6-0 tank engines, several of which have been preserved, including Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T no. 32 Gothenburg.^[64] These locomotives were designed to enable them to negotiate the tight radius curves of the tracks in the Trafford Park industrial estate; the middle wheels of the 0-6-0 arrangement were flangeless, and the coupling rods had a hinged central section that permitted several inches of lateral play. A fleet of diesel locomotives was purchased between 1959 and 1966, but this was later run down and the remaining engines are stationed at Ellesmere Port and Stanlow.^[65]

Today

The forthcoming MediaCityUK

Unlike most other British canals, the Manchester Ship Canal was never nationalised. In 1991, the Ship Canal Company became a part of Peel Holdings, and as of 2008, the canal is owned and operated by Peel Ports, who also own the Port of Liverpool.^[66]

The amount of freight carried by the canal has dropped largely because of the decline of UK-based manufacturing industry, but also because many ocean-going ships are now too large for the locks.^[67] Total freight movements have dropped from 7.68 million tonnes in 2000 to 6.71 million tonnes for the year ending September 2009.^[68] Salford Docks are no longer used as ship docks; vessels using the canal unload their cargo at various places along the canal side, for example at Trafford Park.^[48]

The passenger ferry Snowdrop at Irlam Locks

On 18 October 2007 the retail chain Tesco announced that it had begun using the canal for transporting New World wine between Liverpool and the Irlam Container Terminal, from where the cargo is offloaded and transported to a nearby bottling plant. The firm has said that this will save 700,000 miles (1,100,000 km) of road haulage per year.^[69]

Leisure craft (e.g., narrowboats) can join the Manchester Ship Canal from the Shropshire Union Canal at Ellesmere Port, from the Weaver Navigation at Weston near Runcorn, and from the Bridgewater Canal at Pomona Lock in Salford. However, the safety rules necessary on a major commercial waterway are too onerous for most leisure traffic, so only a few narrowboaters use the canal to complete a "Shropshire Union/Weaver/Trent and Mersey" or Bridgewater Canal ring route.

Maximum size of ships

Although it was built for ocean-going vessels, ship sizes have long outgrown the canal. While many ships are designed specifically to fit the Suez and Panama Canals (Suezmax, Panamax), the narrower Manchester Ship Canal is no longer of major importance for shipping.

In 2005 the maximum length of ship accepted into the canal was 560 feet (170 m) with a beam of 72 feet (22 m). However, beams of around 75 feet (23 m) are acceptable with a smaller length. Maximum draught is 28.8 feet (8.8 m).^[70]

The dimensions of the locks restrict the maximum size of a ship sailing to the end of the canal at Salford to a length of 530 feet (160 m), a 53.5-foot (16.3 m) beam, and a draught of 24 feet (7.3 m). Manchester Liners commissioned four maximum size container vessels in 1968, of 11,898 gross tonnage, the largest ships to make regular use of the terminal docks.^[71] Ships passing under the Runcorn Bridge have a height restriction of 21.33 metres (70.0 ft) above normal water levels.^[70]

Queen Elizabeth II Dock

The Queen Elizabeth II Dock at the entrance to the canal, was built to handle liquid cargo, primarily oil. It has a separate entrance lock 807 feet (246 m) in length and 100 feet (30 m) wide connecting it to the River Mersey. The dock accepts vessels up to 685 feet (209 m) long with a 92-foot (28 m) beam, maximum draught 33 feet (10 m). It opened on 19 January 1954.^[72]

See also

• Canals of Great Britain
• History of the British canal system
• Manchester Ship Canal Police
• Waterways in the United Kingdom

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

• Leech, Sir Bosdin (1907), History of the Manchester Ship Canal (2 volumes), Sherratt & Hughes 

External links

• A documentary about the history of the Ship canal, in three parts
• Virtual Tour
• The Manchester Ship Canal by W.T. Perkins
• Manchester Region History Review Volume 8 1994, The Ship Canal: Raising the Standard for Popular Capitalism, Ian Harford
• MSC Online tracking of vessels on the Ship Canal
• The Transport Archive: Archive images of the Manchester Ship Canal
• Ships entering the Manchester Ship Canal
• Ship Photography on the Manchester Ship Canal