Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
that realised these plans, and by 1734, vessels were able to reach Manchester and
Salford (Gray
1993
) using a series of locks between Warrington on the River
Mersey and Manchester on the River Irwell (Struthers
1993
).
By the early nineteenth century, pressure on warehouse space at both
Manchester and Liverpool Docks was becoming acute (Struthers
1993
). From the
late eighteenth century, however, the Mersey and Irwell faced competition from
the nearby Bridgewater Canal, which offered a faster and more reliable route to
the sea (Gray
1993
). The Canal, together with the opening of the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway in 1830, reduced the use of the Rivers Mersey and Irwell and
the almost bankrupt Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company was taken over by
the Bridgewater Trustees in the mid nineteenth century. The rivers were subse-
quently allowed to deteriorate owing to a lack of dredging as it was considered
preferable to invest money in maintaining the Bridgewater Canal (Gray
2000
).
The worldwide trade depression in the latter part of the nineteenth century
resulted in a period of economic stagnation which was exacerbated by the high
cost of importing raw cotton via the port of Liverpool and its transport to
Manchester by rail (Gray
1993
). As a result, the advantages of a deep, wide
waterway fromManchester to the sea became increasingly economically attract-
ive (Gray
1993
). The idea of a ship canal to Manchester and Salford was promoted
by Daniel Adamson, an owner of a local engineering firm, and after three
Parliamentary Bills, the necessary powers were granted in 1885 (Struthers
1993
).
Construction of the Manchester Ship Canal (MSC) between 1887 and 1894 was
the means by which the inland city of Manchester became an inland seaport
(Farnie
1980
). At a cost of £15million (equivalent to approximately £600million
today) the construction was a major undertaking; the MSC was the largest
navigation in the world, wider at that time than the Suez Canal and deeper
than any waterway in Europe (Struthers
1993
). Indeed the achievement has since
been hailed as 'a feat without precedent in modern history' (Farnie
1980
). The
Canal is 58km long, linking Manchester to Eastham on the Mersey Estuary and
comprises four locks. It utilises water from the Rivers Irwell and Mersey. Termin-
ating at the four docks in Salford and four smaller docks at Pomona 1 km
upstream, the canal transformed the economy of the area by providing impetus
for the industrialisation of Trafford Park, the largest industrial estate in Europe
employing at its peak 75000 people (Struthers
1993
). The docks prospered and
became one of Britain's largest ports, reaching a peak in 1958 (Radway et al.
1988
).
Waterway neglect and deterioration: the River Irwell
It is documented that, in the early part of the nineteenth century, the River
Irwell was a 'clean river', teeming with fish (Struthers
1993
); indeed the River
Irwell was once a salmon river (Boult & Hendry
1995
). A local anecdote supports
the claim that salmon were extremely common in the catchment, as it suggest's
that factory workers threatened strike action due to the monotony of being fed
