Hall House Bridge - Leigh, UK - UK Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Bridgewater Way

Connecting communities with history...
The Bridgewater Way is a partnership scheme which is promoted by The Bridgewater Canal Trust. When completed this regeneration project will create a 40 mile leisure route for walkers and cyclists along the historic Bridgewater Canal.

The Bridgewater Canal
Historically, the Bridgewater Canal is one of the most important in the world and its status is beginning to be recognised Opened in 1761, before the mechanical age, the construction was done by pick and shovel, wheelbarrow, horse and cart, men, women and children. In 2011 the Bridgewater Canal celebrated its 250th anniversary.

Hall House Bridge
The bridges on the Bridgewater Canal were originally constructed to a standard design with only some minor variations due to the different contractors involved in building various stretches of the canal. Many of the bridges have since been altered or replaced due to the needs of modern traffic.

The bridge at Hall House is one of only two of the standard style bridges left in Leigh, the other is Great Fold Bridge. The crane, which can be seen in the picture, is used to place the stop planks in the slots cut into the coping stones on the canal edge. This creates a cut off section of the canal in the case of emergency or maintenance.

You can see one of the maintenance boats at Hall House Bridge, Bert Barrs was in command of this maintenance boat. The photograph is from, and with the permission, of the Pennington Collection.

This photograph shows a barge trip with women and children on a trip from Leigh to Worsley in 1942, organised by the Cable Works. The caption on the back of the photograph reads "Holidays at Home canal cruising plan." It is believed Bill and Tim Gorton were in charge of the barge.