Anderton Boat Lift Trust
Encyclopedia
Waterway society
A Waterway society is a society, association, charitable trust, club, trust or "Friends" group involved in the restoration, preservation, use and enjoyment of waterways, e.g. a canal, river, navigation or other waterway, and their associated buildings and structures, e.g...
in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, UK, and a member of the partnership to restore the Anderton Boat Lift
Anderton Boat Lift
The Anderton Boat Lift near the village of Anderton, Cheshire, in north-west England provides a vertical link between two navigable waterways: the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal....
near Northwich
Northwich
Northwich is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies in the heart of the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane...
on the Weaver Navigation.
The other partners are:
- Association of Waterways Cruising ClubsAssociation of Waterways Cruising ClubsThe Association of Waterways Cruising clubs is a waterway society and umbrella organisation in England, UK. It was founded in the early 1960s by the St Pancras, Dunstable, Uxbridge and Lee and Stort boat clubs as an inter-club scheme for an emergency service for boaters, and for safe overnight...
- British WaterwaysBritish WaterwaysBritish Waterways is a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom, serving as the navigation authority in England, Scotland and Wales for the vast majority of the canals as well as a number of rivers and docks...
- English HeritageEnglish HeritageEnglish Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
- Friends of Anderton Boat Lift
- Heritage Lottery FundHeritage Lottery FundThe Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
- Inland Waterways AssociationInland Waterways AssociationThe Inland Waterways Association was formed in 1946 as a registered charity in the United Kingdom to campaign for the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and sensitive development of British Canals and river navigations....
- Trent and Mersey Canal Society
- Waterways Trust
The Anderton Boat Lift, also known as 'The Cathedral of the Canals' or the 'Eiffel Tower of the Waterways', was built in 1875 to transport boats 50 feet from the Trent and Mersey Canal
Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities—east of Burton upon Trent and west of Middlewich—it is a wide canal....
to the River Weaver
River Weaver
The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732...
. It closed in 1983 due to structural faults caused by corrosion
Corrosion
Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...
. The Anderton Boat Lift Trust was launched in October 1993; it had been campaigning for the restoration of the lift, and succeeded in bringing together all sectors of society. The trust submitted a funding bid to the Heritage Lottery in 1997. The boat lift featured on the BBC2 programme Restoration. boat lift
Boat lift
A boat lift, ship lift, or lift lock is a machine for transporting boats between water at two different elevations, and is an alternative to the canal lock and the canal inclined plane....
was re-opened in 2002.
The lift had a successful first summer season, with over 100,000 visitors, 800 boats passing through, and 16,000 taking a ride on the tripboat.
External links
- Liverpool Echo article, 26 March 2002, £7m Lift for 19th century wonder
- The Independent, London, March 27, 2002 Uplifting experience as 'Eiffel Tower of waterways' reopens
- British Waterways publication Waterfront, re-opening of Anderton Boat Lift
- British Waterways publication Waterfront, Successful first season for Anderton Boat Lift