Mersey and Irwell Navigation / Bridgewater Canal
1779-1973
Archives
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Records including extracts from Board minutes, 1887-1905, 1911-1920 (12 boxes); agenda books, 1887-1893 (3 volumes); Investigation Committee minutes and reports, 1943-1951; engineers report books, 1864-1919; manager's annual reports, 1941-1973 (5 boxes); toll traffic books, 1928-1959; station staff monthly salaries and commission summaries, 1894-1906; Bridgewater Canal and Manchester Ship Canal Acts; legal evidence concerning the Manchester Ship Canal Co. v. the Rochdale Canal, 1898-1901; stock books, 1887-1919 (2 volumes); commission agents agreements, circa 1849-1869 (abstracts) and 1876-1893 (4 boxes).
Related Material:For transcriptions of the minutes for the The Mersey and Irwell Navigation Co. by David Vale 1779-1842 see M717
Place:/Manchester/Manchester/Lancashire/England
Repository:
Manchester Archives and Local Studies
Title:
Mersey and Irwell Navigation / Bridgewater Canal
Date of work:
1779-1973
Reference number:
GB127.M300
Level of description:
Fonds
Includes:
Custodial history:
Mersey and Irwell Navigation.
The Mersey and Irwell Navigation Co. was formed under an Act of 1721, for the creation of a navigable waterway between Manchester and Liverpool. Locks and weirs were constructed between Manchester and Warrington. The first boats reached Manchester in 1736. The Runcorn and Latchford Canal (1804) was one of a number of artificial cuts made to improve navigation. The Navigation was acquired by a new group of proprietors from Manchester and Liverpool in 1799. In 1846 it was taken over by the Bridgewater Trustees, but continued as a separate undertaking from the Canal. The Navigation ceased to function as a continuous waterway after the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal, which used part of its course.
Records including Directors minutes, 1779-1842 (6 volumes); committee order book, 1842-1883; share registers, 1794-1844, 1872-1887 (2 volumes).
Bridgewater Canal.
The first of several Bridgewater Canal Acts was passed in 1759. The Canal was built to enable the Duke of Bridgewater to exploit his coal mines at Worsley to the full by providing cheap transport. The Worsley to Stretford section, including the aqueduct over the River Irwell at Barton, was open by 1761. The Canal reached Manchester by 1763, where a terminus was built at Castlefield. It was completed as far as Runcorn in 1776, where it joined the River Mersey via locks. A further stretch of canal was built from Worsley to Leigh, under an Act of 1795. The Canal was linked to the Trent and Mersey Canal (at Preston Brook, 1776), the Leeds and Liverpool Canal (at Leigh, 1799/1800), the Rochdale Canal (at Manchester, 1805) the Mersey and Irwell Navigation (via Hulme Locks, 1838) and the Weaver Navigation (at Weston, near Runcorn, under the Runcorn and Weston Canal Act of 1853).
After the Duke's death in 1803, the canal, mines and other Bridgewater businesses were run by a group of Trustees. The navigation elements of the business (by then including the Mersey and Irwell Navigation) were sold to the Bridgewater Navigation Co. Ltd. in 1872-1874. In 1887 they were purchased by the Manchester Ship Canal Co. under the terms of the Ship Canal Act,1885, and thereafter functioned as the company's Bridgewater Department. A new steel swing aqueduct was built at Barton in 1893 to carry the canal over the new Ship Canal.
The Bridgewater Department was responsible for commercial traffic on the canal, which continued up until 1974. It also controlled the parent company's fleet of motor vehicles and the barge fleet in operation on both the canals and at Manchester Docks. It operated Runcorn Docks, which provided public warehousing and loading, discharging and handling facilities. The Department also had public warehousing at other points on the canal. The canal is today managed jointly by the Ship Canal Company's Property Division and the Bridgewater Canal Trust. The Trust, consisting of representatives of local authorities and the Ship Canal, was established in 1975, in response to concerns about the canal caused by a breach at Dunham Massey in 1971.
(These historical accounts of the Navigation and Canal are based on the Manchester Ship Canal Company's 'Bridgewater Canal Bi-centenary Handbook' (1961) and its more recent history of the canal (no date) ).
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Use restrictions:
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Topics:
Language:
English
Record number:
7193105
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