Rochdale Canal Bridge 101 – Manchester, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 28.466 W 002° 15.354
30U E 549386 N 5925307
This stone arch bridge carries Castle Street across the junction of the Bridgewater Canal and The Rochdale Canal.
Waymark Code: WMGHHW
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/08/2013
Views: 2
This is the Castlefield area of Manchester where it’s claimed that the industrial revolution first started by canals enabling coal to be cheaply carried in bulk and reducing the cost of steam power.
The Bridgewater Canal was the first to be built and was completed in 1761, followed by the Rochdale Canal in 1799. The bridge is the 101st from the start of the canal at Sowerby Bridge, next to the bottom gates of lock 92, the last lock on the Rochdale Canal.
The bridge gives access to the various wharves in Castlefield. Access bridges are often built next to locks because canals are at their narrowest there and so the bridge is cheaper and easier to build. It has a single segmental arch with stone slab parapets and the road over the bridge is cobbled.
The bridge is so close to the lock gates that the arms are much shorter than normal. This reduces the leverage of the arms and so a gearing mechanism is attached to the lock windlass with chains to pull the arms.
The bridge and lock combined are an English Heritage
Grade II listed building
The Castlefield area of the City of Manchester.
This area is so named because of the remains of a Roman fort in the area.
Manchester was one of the world’s first industrial cities and indeed claims to have started the industrial revolution with the building of the Bridgewater Canal. This canal was the first canal in Britain that did not make use of any existing waterways. It was built by the Duke of Bridgewater to connect his coal mines at Worsley with Manchester and terminated at Castlefield near to the River Medlock. The canal boats were able to carry around ten times more coal than was previously possible by cart. In fact, the canal was so effective that the price of coal in Manchester fell by over half within a year of its opening. This meant that the use of steam power in factories became economically viable.
The Bridgewater canal reached Manchester in 1761 at the Castlefield Basin. It was later extended to provide a link to Liverpool on the west coast. Many factories were built around Castlefield and so the canal started to carry many other goods as well as coal.
In 1799 The Rochdale Canal was joined onto the Bridgewater Canal at Castlefield and connected Manchester to Rochdale. By 1804 the Rochdale Canal was extended to Sowerby Bridge and became the first canal that crossed the Pennine Hills. From Sowerby Bridge it was possible to reach Hull on the East coast by use of a number of other linked canals and rivers.
The next stage of Manchester’s development was the arrival of railways in 1830 and there are four separate railway viaducts that cross the Bridgewater Canal and wharves in Castlefield.
During the 20th Century canals and railways declined in use and Castlefiled became largely derelict. However in 1982 the area became the first Urban Heritage Park and large parts of the area have now been restored. There are now apartments, pubs and restaurants in the area. Various modern bridges have been erected to connect parts of the site and it is now a popular and interesting area to visit and explore.
See this
Wikipedia page for a fuller description of Castlefield.