You Are Here - Bridgewater Canal Top Locks - Runcorn, UK - 'You Are Here' Maps on Waymarking.com

The Bridgewater Canal
"The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and 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 opened in 1761 from Worsley to Manchester, and later extended from Manchester to Runcorn, and then from Worsley to Leigh.

Often considered to be the first "true" canal in England, as it relied upon existing watercourses as sources of water rather than as navigable routes. Navigable throughout its history, it is one of the few canals in Britain not to have been nationalised, and remains privately owned. Pleasure craft now use the canal which forms part of the Cheshire Ring network of canals...
...It now terminates in Runcorn basin, just before the disused flight of 10 locks which (before the approach road to the Silver Jubilee Bridge was built) used to lower the canal to the Runcorn Docks on the River Mersey and later, to the Manchester Ship Canal. The old line of locks in Runcorn fell into disuse in the late 1930s, and they were closed under the Ship Canal Act of 1949 and filled in. " Details extracted from this link

The Map
The map is situated near to Waterloo Bridge. Beyond the bridge is where the top lock used to be at the start of the flight that connected the Bridgewater Canal and The Manchester Ship Canal. It shows a walking route from here to the site of the entrance lock at the Manchester Ship Canal. It largely follows the line of the locks that were filled in. It takes approximately 15 minutes to walk this route.

There is a similar map at the other end of the walk.

Location Name: Bridgewater Canal Top Locks

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