River Medlock
| River Medlock | |
| River | |
 River Medlock running under Oxford Road/Oxford Street, Manchester | |
| Country | England |
|---|---|
| Source | |
| - location | between Oldham and Saddleworth, Pennines |
| Mouth | |
| - location | River Irwell |
| - coordinates | 53°28′26.67″N 2°15′12.31″W / 53.4740750°N 2.2534194°W |
The River Medlock is a river in Greater Manchester in North West England. It rises near Oldham and flows south and west for ten miles to join the River Irwell in the extreme southwest of Manchester city centre.
Source
Rising in the hills that surround Strinesdale just to the east of Oldham, the Medlock flows through the steep-sided wooded gorge that separates Lees from Ashton-under-Lyne and the Daisy Nook Country Park with its 19th-century aqueduct carrying the disused Hollinwood Branch Canal over the shallow river. Along its course, the valley provides a welcome respite from the urban sprawl of the east Manchester suburbs, and is perennially popular with locals.
Lower reaches
The final miles of the river flowing to the River Irwell have been extensively modified. The river is culverted underneath the car park of the City of Manchester Stadium (the site of a former gasworks). It is visible under a bridge on Baring Street, close to Piccadilly Station, before running again in a culvert beneath the former UMIST campus (London Road (A6) to Princess Street), then under Hulme Street, until it appears briefly at Gloucester Street before flowing under the former gasworks at Gaythorn, reappearing at City Road East. At the point where Deansgate and Chester Road (A56) meet (under the Bridgewater Viaduct) the river meets the Bridgewater Canal head on, where a sluice gate (a listed structure) allowed water to feed the canal, until the water quality of the Medlock became too polluted for canal use. Normally the level of the river is several feet below the level of the canal, and the river is carried in a tunnel under the Castlefield canal basin, reappearing at Potato Wharf, where it is supplemented by excess canal water draining into a circular weir. When the river is in spate the tunnel cannot cope and river water enters the canal, flows across the basin, and exits via the weir and manually operated gates. A quarter of a mile further on the Medlock enters the Irwell adjacent to the bottom gate of the disused Hulme Locks.
Navigation
In the latter part of the 18th century the river was navigable at least between the Bridgewater Canal (at Deansgate) and the site of India House (on Whitworth Street). At India House was the entrance to a tunnel used to carry coal to a wharf at Store Street (by Piccadilly station).[1][2] The tunnel mouth is still visible. The tunnel was rendered obsolete by silting of the river and the construction of the Rochdale Canal.
Notable features
The area just south of Oxford Road railway station enclosed by the railway line and the loop in the river was known as "Little Ireland", and was described by Friedrich Engels as "the most horrible spot" of the area.[3] It is commemorated by a red plaque in Cambridge Street near New Wakefield Street.[4][5]
Tributaries
- River Tib
- Shooter's Brook
- Lord's Brook
- Lumb Brook
- Taunton Brook
- Holden Brook
- Little Bankfield Brook
- Rabbit Brook
- Rowton Brook
- Thornley Brook
- Sheep Washes Brook
- Roebuck Low Brook
References
- ↑ N.B. India House was built more than a century later
- ↑ Geoffrey Ashworth, The Lost Rivers of Manchester, Willow Publishing, Altrincham, 1987, ISBN 0-946361-12-6.
- ↑ Friedrich Engels, Condition of the Working Class in England, 1845 (multiple publishers; online edition).
- ↑ Site of Little Ireland Large numbers of immigrant Irish workers lived here in appalling housing conditions Built c.1827 Vacated c.1847 Demolished c.1877
- ↑ Hartwell, Clare (2001); p. 179
Further reading
- Ed Glinert, The Manchester Compendium, Allen Lane, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7139-9971-6.
- Andrew Taylor, Manchester City Centre Map at a scale of 1:3500, 7th edition, Andrew Taylor, 2011. ISBN 978-1-905250-09-7
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