Housesitting in Cheshire

An animation of the Anderton Boat lift in action

We had to travel from Ashbourne to Lymm, it seemed daft to go back to Alvechurch, so we’d booked a pub stopover. Not a bad journey cross country, so we were going to be at the pub before we could check in. Brian found a little detour, and it was only a little detour, to the Anderton Boat lift, we knew it was open at the weekend after we walked there from our campsite, in the rain, a couple of weeks ago! We arrived just in time to hear an announcement about a talk, starting now, so off we dashed. It was just us, apparently he’d gone from 16 to 2, not sure why, but definitely our gain. Really interesting and perfectly timed to watch three boats go through. Success, finally, at our third attempt, though admittedly the first was probably 20 years ago! (See Brian's list of historical engineering facts at the end!)

The nerve centre of the Anderton Boat Lift. The hydraulic rams lifting the cassions are controlled from here

View from the top of the lift showing the exit

A pleasant enough pub was our overnight (The Black Swan @ Hollins Green), except for the helicopter hovering overhead for an hour at 04.00! We’d told Julia where we were staying, fortunately, as she’d made the comment we needed 12p for the toll bridge (The Warburton Toll Bridge)! Deciding we could afford 12p I allowed tolls on the Sat Nav. This took us from 9.1 miles and 20 minutes to 2.7 miles and 8 minutes! For 12p it would have been so easy to miss.

Our nights stay at the Black Swan in Hollins Green, just north of Lymm

Good local ales in the pub!

We arrived, on the edge of Lymm, to meet Julia and Adam, old Kitty cat, and the four hens, Chick, Bobbit and Thelma and Louise. The house is full of flowers as they were only two days married, so we’ve really enjoyed them. Kitty is gorgeous but a bit creaky. She is on gabapentine twice a day, and walks in a strangely jerky, clockwork fashion. Poor old thing, she does make us smile. The hens have a lovely house, but like nothing more than to come out and amble round the garden. Given the chance they’d like to amble round the house too! They hate other birds in the garden and rush at them, or do they think they are eating something exciting? I don’t know.

A houseful of wedding flowers!

Sweet, but old, Kitty cat

We’ve done a few walks from the house, it’s ideally situated between an old railway track, and the canal, to get into Lymm, a very pleasant village, with a very yummy Thai restaurant, (amongst other things). We walked down the canal to look at the Manchester ship canal and under the Thelwall viaduct. Very loud with the M6 going overhead!

And four hens to look after

Lymm, a very pleasant town

We then had to go to Barton Swing Aqueduct. The only one of its kind in the world. Brian seems to have gone from trig points to canal engineering, in the blink of an eye. This is an aqueduct, carrying the canal, that swings, full of water allowing big ships to move down the Manchester ship canal, there is also a swing road bridge. No sign of any movement though. This was right by the Trafford Centre, a shopping centre I guessed. Free parking and time for lunch, we stopped in. Not being great shoppers we didn’t buy anything, but as shopping centres go it was quite an experience. Not to mention we really enjoyed our fast food curry.

Our walk along the old Warrington to Stockport railway line, now a cycle and walk way and round the lakes of the Meadow View Fisheries

Then on to the Manchester Ship Canal

We didn’t do so well with our trip to Salford Quays and MediaCity. We went yesterday and although very pleasant it wasn’t buzzing and vibrant as we expected. It was interesting to walk round the Lowry though and see the “Matchstalk cats and dogs” for real. I’m not a great one for art, but I did enjoy this visit.

And under the two  mighty bridges of the Thelwall Viaduct, one engineering marvel carrying the M6 motorway across an earlier engineering marvel, The Manchester Ship Canal. British engineering at its best (bit noisy though)! See my list of interesting engineering facts below

The Barton Swing Aqueduct - unique in the world!

We spent Friday morning at the local bird of prey rescue centre. We’d forgotten that the cleaners came on a Friday morning so legged it out of the house without even any breakfast. Although it’s sad to see big birds of prey in any cage, these were so well looked after and both owners and volunteers were really enthusiastic and full of information. Apparently there is no regulation on buying birds of prey and since Harry Potter, there have been so many barn owls needing care they are really struggling.

Today we had a little trip to Bolton, though we could have been anywhere, where we actually were was Brian’s eldest granddaughter Abbie, and her boyfriend Alex’s, place. It was lovely to see them, and one of their cats and have a nosy around their first home.

Close up of the central ring gear that turns the bridge. Beneath you might just be able to see the giant roller bearings that support the entire 800 tonne bridge

Tomorrow we leave here and go to Bev and Iain, our friends near Bristol and their three cats (4 last time we were there, RIP Shadow). A stop off at mum’s for shopping, lunch or both, it’ll be all go!

A bridge from a bridge! We're on the Barton road swing viaduct and beyond is the swing aqueduct. The brick building between is the control room. The building and bridges stand on a man made island in the middle of the canal and both bridges swing sideways onto the island to open both sides of the canal to big ships 

The Bridgewater canal as it passes through the swing aqueduct over the Manchester Ship Canal below. We think the little hut on the right operates a swing lock that seals the water on the bridge, another lock on the left (yellow railings) swings out to seal the canal water. One both ends. They do this a good half hour before a ship is due, so queue's on the road bridge can really build up

A small part of the Trafford Centre, an amazing building and a very pleasant experience to visit

The grand staircase in the Great Hall of the Trafford Centre

MediaCityUK in Salford dock area of Old Trafford, Manchester. The Studios is where the UK soap Coronation Street is filmed

But it's also a major BBC and ITV site

Although Kitty cat doesn't seem very impressed!

So here's some interesting facts about the engineering achievements we've seen in and around Lymm and Manchester (in date order):

1. The year 1761: Through Lymm runs the Bridgewater Canal on its way from Runcorn (at one point running from the Irish Sea via the Mersey Estuary) to Manchester. It first opened in 1761 and was Britain's first canal built without following an existing watercourse, becoming the model on which all other canals followed. Named after the Duke of Bridgewater, it is 39 miles long and was originally built to carry coal from the Dukes mines into the industrial areas of Manchester. Following it's completion and opening to the Irish Sea it was used to export goods from Manchester around the world, before the Manchester Ship Canal was opened. Originally a stone aqueduct carried the  canal over the River Irwell, itself an engineering masterpiece, but this was demolished when the Manchester Ship Canal was built and replaced with the Barton Swing Aqueduct. In 1885 the canal was brought by the Manchester Ship Canal Co for £1,710,000. In 1975 a major leak occurred at an aqueduct over a river at Bollin, gushing water into the river below causing water levels in Manchester to drop by 14". Closure of the canal was considered, but eventually it was repaired for £250,000

2. The year 1854: Also running through Lymm was the Warrington to Stockport railway. It too had some modifications when the Manchester Ship Canal was built, being diverted over the Latchford Viaduct. The railway was closed tom passenger trains in 1962 and finally to freight in 1985 after the Latchford Viaduct was found to need major repairs, making it unviable. The track was removed and the route is now a cycleway. The Latchford Viaduct still crossed the canal, but is closed

3. The year 1894: The Manchester Ship Canal opens. It's 36 miles long and connects the Irish Sea to Manchester via the Mersey Estuary. Although freight could be carried from Manchester along both the Bridgewater Canal and the railways it still had to be unloaded from ocean going ships at Liverpool and reloaded onto barges and trains. High costs imposed by the Port of Liverpool forced businessmen to finance the building of the canal as it was cheaper to use the Port of Hull on the other side of the country. Against fierce opposition it eventually was passed by Parliament and built, roughly following the Mersey and Irwell watercourses and with locks to raise ships 60feet to the level of Manchester. It allowed ocean going ships to sail directly into Manchester, 40 miles inland, making it the third busiest Port in the UK. It cost £15m, more than twice it's original £7m estimate, a familiar story even today! The main exports from Manchester were in the cotton and textile industries and, here is another interesting fact: When we were in New Zealand, 9 years ago we were puzzled when watching adverts on TV that referred to Manchester. 'Buy your Manchester here'. 'Best prices and quality, come here for all your Manchester'. We could see pictures of home department stores with beds and furniture. It turns out that Manchester is a general term for home furnishings, bedding, sheets and all cotton textiles. I think they use the term in Australia too and people seemed bemused when we asked what it was. It's Manchester, they said, you know, sheets and blankets. A tribute to the strength of exports from here to around the world, aided in many ways to the Manchester Ship Canal  

4. The year 1893: The Barton Swing Aqueduct. The Chief Engineer was Edward Williams, who also built the Anderton Boat  Lift. The only swing aqueduct in the world. It is 250ft long, 17ft wide, 7ft deep and weighs 800 tonnes. It is still working (although only occasionally) 128 years later. The Barton stone aqueduct, itself an engineering marvel of the 18th century was demolished to make way. The new swing aqueduct was built alongside the still operating stone bridge and was so close, the swing bridge couldn't be operated until the stone bridge was removed. But so confident was Edward Williams that he pressed on with the built sure it would work

5. The year 1875: The Anderton Boat Lift. The same engineer, Edward Williams went on to built this lift just outside Northwich and lifts barges from the River Weaver 15.22m (50feet) up onto the Mersey to Trent Canal. It originally had two hydraulic, water filled rams to lift the two cassions, driven by steam engines using water from the river. By 1900 the rams were very corroded and major repairs were needed so, in 1908 a major refurbishment removed the hydraulic rams and replaced them with an overhead, electrically driven pulley and counterweight system. It operated this way until major corrosion to the structure was found in 1983 and it was closed. There it rotted quietly until funds of £7m were raised to refurbish it in 2001. It is now driven by two oil hydraulic rams, similar to the original design, but the overhead pulley system has been retained, but not used. 

6. The year 1963: The Thelwall Viaduct opens carrying the M6 motorway north over both the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey. It is 4,414feet long (1.345km), the longest span being over the Ship Canal at 336feet

7 The year 1995: A second Thelwall Viaduct bridge is constructed alongside the existing, with the first bridge modified to take all northbound traffic, the new bridge taking southbound traffic. In 2018 over 167,000 vehicles a day went over the crossing