Barton Swing Aqueduct

[Martin Nicholas]

Not often mentioned here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/28/geeks_guide_barton_aqueduct/

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Regards,

Martin Nicholas.

E-mail: reply-...@mgn.org.uk

[Joyce Whitchurch]

Excellent stuff - many thanks!

And it reminds me of a nagging question. The Bridgwater Canal originally ran to Manchester from the mines of the eponymous Duke at Worsley. The main line to Runcorn was added later. Water flowed out of the mines. Where did it leave the canal? At the Manchester end? Did it simply drain into the Irwell at Castlefield?
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Joyce Whitchurch, Stalybridge, UK
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[Joyce Whitchurch]

Thinking again about the very informative Aqueduct article - I'm surprised that it doesn't mention the way the swing aqueduct was commissioned. It was built quite close to the original fixed aqueduct, to minimise alterations to the rest of the canal. This meant that it couldn't be tested until the original aqueduct had been demolished or at least reduced in height. The story goes that it worked first time.

[Ian McCarthy]

On 8/1/2016 6:49 PM, Joyce Whitchurch wrote:
> Excellent stuff - many thanks!
>
> And it reminds me of a nagging question. The Bridgwater Canal originally ran to

Manchester from the mines of the eponymous Duke at Worsley. The main
line to Runcorn

was added later. Water flowed out of the mines. Where did it leave the
canal? At the

Manchester end? Did it simply drain into the Irwell at Castlefield?
>

In Manchester there is a complex water feed system which Brindley built
to take water from the River Medlock. This was an automatic system which
is currently out of use because of the difference in levels of
pollution, canal clean, river dirty. The water came in from a tippler
weir system on the far side of Knot Mill, this length of canal is what
us to be the original course of the river, before it was culvetted,
Then there is a large circular weir, of the type for which Brindley is
famous, near the YHA on Liverpool St. The Medlock supply was only used
if a lot of lockage was undertaken at Hulme lock. The Bridgewater is
also entitled to a feed from the Rochdale canal, and the bottom lock of
this was originally owned by the Bridgewater Canal Co, only transferring
to RCC in the late 1800's. Thus its name, Dukes Lock.
Originally the Hulme link to the river was three shallow locks to
converser water, later made into one deep lock (not sure when) Hulme
lock goes out into the very end of the Medlock as it enters the River
Irwell, which is now part of the Upper reaches of the Ship Canal.
There is also another small circular weir beyond the stop lock on the
main line at Hulme. The Stop lock was installed to stop the polluted
waters of the Medlock getting into the rest of the canal. The weir is
just west of Cornbook St Bridge, and you guess right it drains into Corn
Brook, one of Manchester's hidden rivers.

This website shows the Tipper weirs and the map of the culverts
http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/WATERWAYS/medlock/rivermedlock.html

--
cheers Ian Mac

[Joyce Whitchurch]

On Tuesday, 2 August 2016 11:16:08 UTC+1, Ian McCarthy wrote:
>
> This website shows the Tipper weirs and the map of the culverts
> http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/WATERWAYS/medlock/rivermedlock.html

Fascinating - thank you! It hadn't occurred to me to wonder just how the Medlock gets round the canals. Rather stupidly, I had always assumed that the Giant's Basin - a name of which I was previously ignorant - and its channel to the Irwell were purely part of the canal drainage, built to clear the excess of water that comes down the Rochdale.

A little more browsing has taken me to a more detailed description of the Giant's Basin - http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/tours/tour1/giants.html.

But I'm still wondering how exactly a "tippler weir" worked. Searches for that term just bring up several variations of the original story, for example https://integraldrift.wordpress.com/tag/knott-mill/ (though that does have an interesting map showing a "Portable Gas Works" near Cambridge Street...).