Trent and Mersey Canal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a 93.5 miles (140 km) long canal in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is mostly a "narrow canal" (locks and bridges big enough for a narrowboat 72 feet long x 7 feet wide) but east of Burton on Trent, it is a wide canal (locks and bridges can accommodate boats 14ft wide).
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[edit] History
As its name implies, the Trent & Mersey canal was built (opened 1777) to link the River Trent at Derwent Mouth (in Derbyshire) to the River Mersey. The second connection is made via the Bridgewater Canal, which it joins at Preston Brook in Cheshire. Note that although mileposts measure the distance to Preston Brook and Shardlow, Derwent mouth is a mile or so beyond Shardlow.
The idea of a canal connection from the Mersey to the Trent ("The Grand Trunk") came from canal engineer James Brindley. It was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1766 and the first sod was cut by Josiah Wedgwood in July that year at Middleport. Less than eleven years later, the whole canal, including more than 70 locks and five tunnels, was open, with the company headquarters in Stone.
[edit] Features
- A special feature on the Cheshire stretch of the canal is the Anderton Boat Lift, the world's first boat-lift. Until the construction of the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland, it was the only boat-lift in the United Kingdom.
- Another major feature is the Harecastle Tunnel, near Kidsgrove in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, north Staffordshire. There are actually two tunnels. The first tunnel, built by Brindley was 2880 yards (2633 m) long; barges were 'legged' through by men lying on their backs and pushing against the roof with their feet. This was a physically demanding and slow process and created major delays, so leading civil engineer Thomas Telford was commissioned to provide a second and wider, parallel tunnel, with a towpath. This 2926 yard (2676 m) long tunnel was opened in 1827. In the 1900s, the Brindley tunnel was closed due to severe subsidence, but the Telford Tunnel - although also prone to the same problems - remains in use, and is the fourth longest navigable canal tunnel in the UK.
- The junction with the Macclesfield Canal, at Red Bull, is unusual. At this point the T&M is running approximately E/W. The "Macc" leaves the T&M at a normal right angle junction (Hardings Wood Junction) to the South of the T&M, but then turns 90 degrees clockwise to run parallel with the T&M (West) while the T&M drops through 2 locks. The Macc then turns through another 90 degrees to face North, and crosses the T&M on Red Bull aqueduct (Red Bull is the name of the pub and small settlement, called "Red Cow" in Arnold Bennett's novels). There is only one other such "flyover" junction on the English canal network, where the Caldon Canal (which itself joins the T&M in nearby Stoke on Trent) splits at Hazelhurst Junction, the Leek Branch thereafter crosses the main line.
The canal passes through the centre of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, where it formed an integral part of the 1986 National Garden Festival, the Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival. The canal's towpath forms a vital part of the city's National Cycle Network.
[edit] Route
- The connection with the Bridgewater Canal gives access to Runcorn (but no longer to the Mersey or Ship Canal) in one direction and Manchester (with its many canal links) in the other.
- From the junction with the Bridgewater Canal, the T&M travels south through Preston Brook Tunnel (one-way operation, alternating each half hour) and two smaller tunnels to the "junction" with the River Weaver at Anderton Boat lift near Northwich.
- After Anderton, the next major destination is Middlewich, with the junction with an arm of the Shropshire Union Canal which gives access to Chester, Llangollen and (south on the "Shroppie") a parallel route to Birmingham/Wolverhampton.
- South of Middlewich, the T&M climbs out of the Cheshire Plain via the infamous "Heartbreak Hill" locks (more traditionally just called the "Cheshire Locks") to the summit-level and the junction with the Macclesfield Canal at Red Bull (Kidsgrove). The boater can use the Macc to head for Marple, and the junction with the Peak forest Canal (and hence, via the Ashton, Rochdale and Bridgewater canal) to complete the "Cheshire Ring".
- After the long (40 minute) Harcastle tunnel (one way, alternating roughly every two hours), the canal emerges in the outskirts of Stoke on Trent, and is soon in the middle of the city and then at Etruria, and the junction with the Caldon Canal.
- Leaving Etruria, the T&M is soon back in open country. It is now in the valley of the infant River Trent (which the T&M follows until the River becomes navigable and the canal is no longer needed).
- The next sizeable place is the Market town of Stone, with the famous canalside Star Inn.
- After more countryside, the canal reaches Great Haywood and the famously graceful towpath bridge across the junction with the Staffs and Worcester Canal (which heads south to skirt Wolverhampton and join with the River Severn at Stourport - thus connecting the Mersey with the Severn).
- The next event is a right angle bend, of no apparent significance from the boat - but a map shows that this is where the canal (and the Trent) changes its basic direction - from SW (heading away from Runcorn) to NE (heading towards Nottingham).
- Very soon is Fradley Junction (with the Coventry Canal). This junction perhaps comes close to rivalling Gas Street Basin (Birmingham) as the central point on the English canal system, and feels appropriately important from the canal, being overlooked by a splendid waterways pub, the Swan. However, the junction is not easy to find by road, and is actually in the middle of nowhere (it is not even in Fradley!). The junction is important because the Coventry soon changes its name to the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and branches off to Birmingham or (via another stretch of Coventry Canal) to Coventry and a junction with the Oxford Canal and hence to all the "Southern Half" of the English canals.
- The canal now heads directly to its terminus, passing through Burton on Trent and then (through wide locks) to Shardlow (a canal village, formerly the home of the T&M company offices) and, finally, Derwent Mouth.
- It is not far from Derwent Mouth, via the River Trent to Trent Lock, the impressive and beautiful four-way junction with the Erewash Canal (dead end at Great Northern Basin, formerly a link with the Cromford Canal), the Nottingham Canal (links back to the Trent in Nottingham) and the River Soar Navigation (links via Leicester to the Grand Union Canal).
