Readers may recall sitting in geography lessons in the 1950/’60s, when any one of the following could have been the subject of the day: the Lancashire cotton industry, the West Yorkshire woollen industry, centres of shipbuilding, the West Midlands motor car industry, the Potteries and last, but not least, the importance of the Manchester Ship Canal (MSC).
Thirty-six miles long, this civil engineering masterpiece of the late ninenteenth century, connected Liverpool with Manchester, conferring on the latter, the status of inland port, capable of receiving ocean-going vessels. The conventional wisdom is that the Canal was necessary in order to avoid the heavy tolls and dues levied on imports passing through Liverpool. The London & North Western Railway Company also charged excessive rates for the conveyance of raw cotton to Manchester and finished cotton goods destined for export. So excessive were the tolls and dues that it was considered feasible to bring raw cotton to Manchester via Hull!
During the time that the MSC was being fully promoted, there was much opposition to the scheme. This came from a variety of interests, not least from the LNWR which saw its strong opposition from existing canal concerns: the Mersey and Irwell Navigation saw its future interests suffer if the MSC was successful. Undaunted, the Provisional Committee of the MSC attempted three times to pass the MSC Bill through Parliament. The third attempt was successful and the Bill received Royal Assent on 6th May 1887.
In addition to the opposition, the promoters of the MSC had to overcome financial problems, flooding of the Canal’s route in spring and winter, and sub-zero winter temperatures, all of which seriously delayed construction.
Three individuals stand out as promoters of the scheme: Daniel Adamson, Edward Leader Williams (knighted by Queen Victoria in May 1894) and T. A. Walker, contractor, who died before the Canal was completed. The Canal opened on 1st January 1894. The project took seven years to complete and cost in the region of £15 million - in 1894, a considerable amount of money.
Long before the Canal was envisaged, a few railway companies owned lines over the south Lancashire and north Cheshire landscape, negotiating the flood plains of the Riversbridges were acceptable, but not for railways. Instead, the railways were to be carried on high level bridges. Four of these were the so-called ‘deviation’ bridges: Irlam, Cadishead, Latchford and Acton Grange. The fifth bridge was located at Runcorn where no deviation of the LNWR’s main line was necessary, the headroom of 75ft, set in 1868, becoming a yardstick by which the other four were constructed.
