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Manchester Ship Canal
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The Manchester Ship Canal is a long river navigation in North West England. Built to give the city of Manchester direct access to the sea, it was built between 1887 and 1894 at a cost of about £15M, and in its day was the largest navigation canal in the world.
The canal roughly follows the original route of the rivers Mersey and Irwell, along its course using several sets of locks. The canal can accommodate a range of vessels, from coastal ships to intra-European shipping, and inter-continental cargo liners, although the canal is not large enough to accommodate some of the larger modern vessels.
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The Manchester Ship Canal is a long river navigation in North West England. Built to give the city of Manchester direct access to the sea, it was built between 1887 and 1894 at a cost of about £15M, and in its day was the largest navigation canal in the world.
The canal roughly follows the original route of the rivers Mersey and Irwell, along its course using several sets of locks. The canal can accommodate a range of vessels, from coastal ships to intra-European shipping, and inter-continental cargo liners, although the canal is not large enough to accommodate some of the larger modern vessels. A railway was built to transport goods to and from the docks located alongside the canal.
Today the canal is not considered to be an important shipping route but still carries about six million tonnes of freight each year. It remains privately owned.
Early history
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, but it was not until 1720 that the necessary parliamentary bills were passed to create the Mersey & Irwell Navigation. Work began in 1724, and by 1734 boats were able to make the journey to the sea from quays along Water Street in Manchester. The Mersey and Irwell was navigable only by small ships, and during periods of drought or strong winds there was not always sufficient depth of water for a fully laden boat. 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 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 £1,112,000. It had by then begun to fall into disrepair; in 1882 it was described as being "hopelessly choked with silt and filth", and was open to 50-ton (51 t) boats for only 47 out of 311 working days.
Along with Deteriorating economic conditions in the 1870s, 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 to from Liverpool. A ship canal was proposed as a way to reverse Manchester's economic decline by giving the city direct access to the sea for its imports and its exports of manufactured goods.
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. 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 had to buy both the Bridgewater Canal and the Mersey & Irwell Navigation within two years. The estimated cost of construction was £5,160,000, and the work was expected to take four years to complete.
Initial financing
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. 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:
The enabling act though, did not allow the company to issue shares of less value than £10. To make them easier for ordinary people to buy, shilling coupons were issued in books of ten, so that shares could be paid for in instalments. However, by May 1887 only £3M had been raised. The contractor chosen to construct the canal, Thomas Walker, agreed to accept £½M 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 £3M of ordinary shares and £4M of preference shares. 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. 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.
Large portions of the eventual cost of construction were borne by Manchester rate-payers, via Manchester Corporation. Loans were arranged during the early 1890s on condition that the Corporation held 11 of the 21 seats on the Canal Company's board of directors led by John Aird, an engineering contractor and MP.
Construction
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 length was divided into eight sections, with an engineer responsible for each. The first section was from Eastham to Ellesmere Port. Northwest of Ellesmere Port, on a narrow stretch of land between the canal and the Mersey, is Mount Manisty, a huge mound of earth created from the extracted soil; 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.
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, closed because of ice. The company decided to take over the contracting work itself, and bought all the equipment on site for £400,000.
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, during one of the three royal visits the Queen made to Manchester. Edward Leader Williams was knighted by the Queen on 2 July by Letters Patent.
The project took six years to complete, at a cost of just over £15M, and was in its day the largest navigation canal in the world. 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. An average of 12,000 workers were employed during construction, peaking at 17,000. Regular navvies were paid at a rate of d per hour for a 10-hour working day, equivalent to about £70 per day as of 2008. In terms of machinery, the scheme called upon over of temporary rail track, 180 locomotives, over 6,000 trucks and wagons, 124 steam-powered cranes, 192 other steam engines, and 97 steam excavators. Major engineering landmarks of the scheme included the Barton Swing Aqueduct (carrying the Bridgewater Canal over the Ship Canal) and a neighbouring swing bridge for road traffic at Barton.
In 1909, the water level in the canal was raised by , increasing the canal's depth from to , to match that of the Suez Canal.
Route
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.
Pomona Docks have been filled in and built over save for number 3 dock which remains totally intact and has a lock connecting the Ship Canal to the Bridgewater Canal that 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, for example at Mode Wheel (Salford), Trafford Park and Ellesmere Port.
Most vessels have to terminate at Salford Quays, though smaller vessels can continue up the River Irwell to either join the Bridgewater Canal via Pomona Lock or, carry on to just short of Manchester Cathedral.
Features
The Manchester Ship Canal is the eighth-longest ship canal in the world, only slightly shorter than the Panama Canal in Central America. Upon completion, the Manchester Ship Canal enabled Manchester to become Britain's third busiest port, despite being about inland.
The planned site of the terminal docks was sixty feet above sea level, so several sets of locks were required. The entrance locks are located at Eastham on the Wirral side of the Mersey, where the lock gates seal off the tidal estuary. Four additional sets of locks, located further inland, each have a rise of approximately fifteen feet. These locks are located at Latchford, near Warrington; Irlam; Barton-upon-Irwell near Eccles and Mode Wheel, Salford. At each of the five locations there is a large lock for ocean-going ships and a smaller, narrower lock to handle tugs, coasters etc.
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. No.9 Dock was completed on the same site in 1905.
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. Each of the three graving docks could accommodate ocean-going ships of up to in length and in beam, equivalent to vessels of 8,000 gross tons. Manchester Liners Ltd acquired control of the company in 1974 in order to ensure facilities for the repair of their fleet of ships.
| Features and coordinates |
|---|
| Location | Distance from
Eastham Locks | Coordinates
(links to map & photo sources) |
|---|
| miles | km |
|---|
| Eastham Locks | 0 | 0 | | | Runcorn Railway Bridge | 12.5 | 20.1 | | | Silver Jubilee Bridge | 12.6 | 20.3 | | | Old Quay Lock (closed) | 13.0 | 20.9 | | | Old Quay Swing Bridge | 13.3 | 21.4 | | | Moore Lane Swing Bridge | 17.1 | 27.5 | | | Acton Grange Railway Viaduct | 17.9 | 28.8 | | | Chester Road Swing Bridge | 18.7 | 30.1 | | | London Road (A49) Swing Bridge | 19.4 | 31.2 | | | Cantilever High Level Bridge | 20.1 | 32.3 | | | Knutsford Road Swing Bridge | 20.4 | 32.8 | | | Thelwall Viaduct (M6) | 22.8 | 36.7 | | | Warburton Bridge (Toll) | 28.1 | 45.2 | | | Irlam Railway Viaduct | 28.1 | 45.2 | | | Barton High Level Bridge (M60) | 30.9 | 49.7 | | | Barton Road Swing Bridge | 31.7 | 51.0 | | | Barton Swing Aqueduct | 31.7 | 51.0 | | | Salford Quays | 34.6 | 55.7 | | | Trafford Road Swing Bridge | 35.0 | 56.3 | | | Pomona Docks | 35.5 | 57.1 | | Woden Street Bridge | 36.0 | 57.9 | |
Operational history
From its 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. Although some other shipowners brought their vessels to Manchester, it took the initiative of Manchester Liners to establish 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 and being met by the Lord Mayor of Manchester and a large welcoming crowd.
In 1974, the canal handled 2,900,000 tons of dry cargo, 783,000 tons (27%) of which was carried by Manchester Liners.
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; also in smaller tankers to Runcorn. Reference to the link below to the 'MSC Online tracking of vessels on the Ship Canal' (Ince Banks section) will show details of tankers and other vessels in the canal at any given time. At 2230 hours on 2 December 2008, per the official website, there were seven tanker vessels anchored in the canal between the Queen Elizabeth II Dock and Runcorn docks; and at 1500 hours on 7 December 2008 this had increased to eight, clearly indicating the substantial volume of liquid cargos handled by the canal.
MSC Railway
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 and became the largest private railway system in the British Isles, with 790 employees, 75 locomotives, 2,700 wagons and over of track.
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.. 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, which now masquerades as Thomas the Tank Engine at the East Lancashire Railway.. 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.
Today
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 at 2008, the canal is owned and operated by Peel Ports, who also own the Port of Liverpool.
Today, largely because of the decline of UK-based manufacturing industry and also because many ocean-going ships are too large to fit in the canal, the amount of freight it carries has dropped to about six million tonnes each year. Salford Docks are no longer used as ship docks, and ships using the Manchester Ship Canal unload their cargo at various places along the canal side, e.g. at Trafford Park.
On 18 October 2007, a retail chain 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 of road haulage per year.
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 the most intrepid narrowboaters use the canal to complete a "Shropshire Union/Trent and Mersey/Weaver" ring route. A few canal boats take advantage of the less severe restrictions "upstream" of Pomona Lock, to explore the final section of the canal and a short length of the River Irwell. The construction of a new canal from the present Liverpool terminus of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the Pier Head at Liverpool may see more willing to try to navigate the Mersey itself and access the ship canal at Eastham Locks.
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 with a beam of . However, beams of around are acceptable with a smaller length. Maximum draught is .
The maximum size of a ship going to the end of the canal at Salford docks is length , beam , and draught . This is due to the sizes of the largest locks that can be used, x . Manchester Liners commissioned four maximum size container vessels in 1968, of 11,898 gross tonnage and these were the largest ships to regularly use the terminal docks. Ships passing the Runcorn bridge also have a height restriction of above normal water levels.
The Queen Elizabeth II Dock built to handle liquid cargo, primarily oil, at the entrance to the canal has a separate entrance lock in length and wide. It can accept vessels up to long with a beam, maximum draught . It opened on 19 January 1954.
See also
External links
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