Yet another Wonder of the Waterways

As promised in our last update, I am doing another to bring us up to date.  We are now on the River Weaver and close to sea level once more.  This afternoon we came down the Anderton Boat Lift which is our latest Wonder of the Waterways.  But we need to go back to where we left off at Lymm in Cheshire on the Bridgewater Canal.

Lymm is a very pretty village with a gorge running through the middle of it.  The river in the bottom has been dammed in a couple of places to produce lakes and this one is in the centre of the village.  The valley above is called the Dingle.

Our friends Iain and Ann, who live in Oldham, drove out to spend the afternoon and evening with us.  Here you can see (from left to right) Daphne, Ann, Iain and Helen.  William was also with us but seems to have gone walkabout.  The ornate archway leads down into the Dingle and to the village centre.  We walked the whole of the Heritage trail around the village including the gorge below which is called Slitten Gorge where water power was used to slice up iron bars for nail making.

On Thursday we left Lymm and stopped at lunchtime at Daresbury.  Half a mile from the canal is the church where Lewis Carroll's father was vicar and it was in the parsonage here that Lewis (real name Charles Dodgson) was born.  As well as an exhibition about him the church has a series of windows with Alice in Wonderland characters.  This one shows the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

And here is Lewis Carroll with Alice.

In the afternoon we carried on to Runcorn which is at the end of a branch of the Bridgewater Canal.  We had distant views of the new Mersey Gateway Bridge seen here between the trees.

At the end of the Branch in Runcorn we turned round and moored.  Behind us is Waterloo Bridge. The canal used to go through here and down 10 locks originally to the River Mersey and later to the Manchester Ship Canal.  A road blocks this route now but, with the opening of the Mersey Gateway Bridge road bridge, roads have been rerouted and there is a possibility of restoring the locks.

We took a path which follows the line of the old locks.  The stones in the picture were part of one of the locks.

In this photo you can make out where the old lock gates would have fitted.

And here is the last of the locks leading out onto the Manchester Ship Canal, now in the middle of a modern housing development.

In the last lock you can still see the remains of the lock gate and the paddle gear.

This magnificent house, now in the middle of the same housing development, was built as a temporary home for the Duke of Bridgewater when the Runcorn Branch was being built.  Not bad for a temporary abode is it?

From the end of the Runcorn Locks we walked round to the old Runcorn to Widnes Bridge seen here from underneath with the railway bridge to the left.

This is the more classic view of that bridge.  It no longer has vehicles on it but pedestrians were still walking across.

Yesterday (Friday 23rd) we rejoined the main Canal and turned right for Preston Brook Tunnel.  Like the two small tunnels that follow this is not wide enough for two boats to pass so there is an arrangement for southbound boats (as we were) to pass at the half hour and northbound at the hour.  So here we are waiting for our time slot.

Preston Brook Tunnel is about two-thirds of a mile long and here you can see our friends on Jabulani coming out of the south portal of the tunnel.

Once through the tunnel we were off the Bridgewater Canal and onto the Trent and Mersey.  This canal has distinctive mileposts of which this is the first.

We moored on Friday afternoon at relatively new moorings on the site of where the canal breached and flowed down into the Weaver valley in 2012.  This plaque marks the spot.  It is a lovely position overlooking the valley.

Jabulani had to go for a pump-out (if you are not a boater best not to ask what this is).  Helen and Ian went for a walk down into the Weaver valley and crossed this lovely bridge over the weir stream below Dutton Locks.

The Weaver is a large scale commercial river (or at least it used to be) as this notice by Dutton Locks shows.

Today we came along through the two short tunnels (this one is Barnton) to Anderton.

The wonderful Victorians built this fantastic boat lift to connect the Trent and Mersey Canal with the River Weaver fifty feet below.  The lift has been restored a couple of times and in its most recent form was reopened in 2002.

Leo came down with another boat, Marbury Lady.  A channel connects the Trent and Mersey with the lift itself.  Here we are waiting in the channel to enter the caisson that goes down.  The two caissons are side by side, generally with one going up while the other goes down, though they can operate separately.

Here is the view looking down from the top to the river below.

We are now in the caisson looking back towards the Trent and Mersey. 

Now we have started to descend.  Before this the gate closes behind the boats to keep the water in.  There are in fact a pair of gates so that the canal behind is also sealed.  The descent is so gradual that you barely notice you are moving and there is no jolt when the caisson starts and finishes its travel.

Half way down we passed the trip boat coming up in the other caisson.

Here the other caisson has reached the top and we are down at river level.  The cog wheels on top remain but have no function now.  They were part of the 1908 restoration when the caissons were supported by cables from wheels at the top.

Now, as in the original format of the lift, each caisson is supported on a huge hydraulic ram (the shiny pole shown here) and oil is pumped in or out to push it up or let it down.  With one up and one down it requires very little energy to operate as water is let out of the rising caisson so that the lift is partly driven by the difference in weight of the two caissons.

And here is the view from the bottom as we came out of the lift.  A similar double gate operates here.  The lift is a marvel of engineering and, for normal boat licence holders, it is also free!

 We are moored tonight just a couple of miles downstream from the Lift.  Over the next few days we will be exploring the River Weaver before we come back up the Lift and continue our southward journey.  And, as these pictures show, the weather has significantly improved.