The Hulme Locks Branch Canal is a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

in the city of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. It is 200m (one furlong) in length and was built to provide a direct waterway between the

Mersey and Irwell Navigation The Mersey and Irwell Navigation was a river navigation in North West England, which provided a navigable route from the Mersey estuary to Salford and Manchester, by improving the course of the River Irwell and the River Mersey. Eight locks were ...

and the

Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...

. The canal opened in 1838 and was superseded in 1995 by a new lock at Pomona Dock 3. As both of its locks remain closed, the canal is now overgrown.

History

The lack of any direct canal link between the Mersey and Irwell Navigation (M&IN) and the

Rochdale Canal The Rochdale Canal is in Northern England, between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge, part of the connected system of the canals of Great Britain. Its name refers to the town of Rochdale through which it passes. The Rochdale is a broad canal beca ...

meant that goods being transported using both waterways had to be offloaded onto carts and carried across the city, before being loaded back onto boats to continue their journey. This was costly and time-consuming, as well as adding to traffic congestion on the streets of Manchester. In 1799 the nearby

Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, England, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when fully opened, was long. It was accessed via a junction with the River Irwell in Salford. ...

company (MB&B) proposed to connect their canal to the Rochdale canal with an aqueduct across the M&IN. Due mainly to strong objections from the M&IN, who would have suffered a loss of trade, the link was not forthcoming. In 1805, John Nightingale was asked by the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company to estimate the cost of a canal link between Manchester and Salford. Nothing would happen until 1836, when John Gilbert was appointed as engineer. The

Company sensing potential loss of trade cut the short Hulme Locks Branch Canal connecting their canal to the River Irwell. The following year the M&IN completed the

Manchester and Salford Junction Canal The Manchester and Salford Junction Canal was a canal in the city of Manchester. It was originally built to provide a direct waterway between the Mersey and Irwell Navigation and the Rochdale Canal. The canal opened in 1839 and was abandoned i ...

. This provided an alternative route from the Rochdale Canal to the River Irwell, and cargoes from either direction could navigate onto the Irwell using the junction canal or Hulme Locks. Hulme Locks & Medlock 2431

Decline

The canals were constructed just as railways were becoming popular but the railways had little effect on Bridgewater Canal traffic. In later years, both the Bridgewater Canal and River Irwell came to be owned by the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...

Company, removing the competitive incentive for keeping both canals open and the Junction Canal was abandoned in 1922. Hulme Locks Branch Canal was used until 1995, when a new lock was provided at Pomona Docks (Dock 3), and this branch canal is now overgrown. There were originally three locks on the Hulme Locks Branch but because of the large amount of barge traffic carrying maize from ships in Salford Docks to Kelloggs factory in Trafford Park, improvements were made to the Bridgewater Canal in the 1950s and 60s which included changing the three locks to one single deep lock. This happened in 1962. The canal was also deepened between here and the Kelloggs factory so that the barges could carry greater payloads. A new fleet of steel barges was built in the late 1940s and early '50s, principally to carry the Kelloggs traffic. This traffic ceased in 1974, because Kelloggs were finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable ships to bring the maize from Canada that were small enough to use the Ship Canal so they built a new mill at Liverpool.

References

External links

{{commons category, Hulme Locks
Jim Sheads site

Canals in Manchester Canals opened in 1838 1838 establishments in England

History

Decline

See also

References

External links