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River Weaver at Anderton, 1981


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In the same film as the photos I've put in the Coles Morton thread, I also have these of Anderton, taken on 3rd August 1981, which I thought you might like to see.

Apologies for the poor quality of some of them. They show us that the Anderton Lift was under repair at the time, though Wikipedia tells me this is before the lift was closed in 1983.

Also see that there was shipping on the river - from another photo the name of the ship is 'Costas' from Esbjerg. Would it have been mooring around the corner or going further up river ? 

It's a great shame that ships don't still use the river - there is so much scope for them to go up to Winsford to load salt.

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16 minutes ago, John Brightley said:

They show us that the Anderton Lift was under repair at the time, though Wikipedia tells me this is before the lift was closed in 1983.

 

My recollection is that the lift closed as a result of problems found when doing routine maintenance and repainting. This could well be what you saw in 1981.

 

Originally the caissons were supported by hydraulic cylinders, and the structure was just there to keep the caissons in alignment. Following corrosion problems, in 1908 the lift was converted so that the caissons were supported from steel cables which passed over pulleys on the top to counterweights on the sides. And to achieve this a substantial amount of additional steelwork was added to carry the weight.

 

When they shotblasted the steelwork for the repainting, they found that the added steelwork was badly corroded and incapable of carrying the loads (although the original steelwork was in much better condition). So the caissons were hastily lowered to the bottom level and the counterweights and gearing on the top removed. As part of the restoration the decision was made to revert to hydraulic operation, so the 1908 steelwork was not required to carry out any structural function.

 

 

 

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1977, part of our annual boating holiday was spent on the Weaver. £6.50 ( return?)to use the Anderton lift. Went up into Winsford bottom flash, got stuck in the mud for a while, dropped anchor in the middle of a  yacht race while we had tea. Next day down to Weston Point docks, the wharves were piled high with automotive scrap metal. Return to Anderton  we shared two locks with one of the above mentioned ships, just enough room alongside for a wooden NB. Lock Keeper: " You go out first , you will be faster  than him" Ship was going to Winnington Wharf, opposite the lift. None of your namby-pamby  regulations and instructions  you get today?. Last time I was there,Winnington  Wharf was completely silted up and you couldn't get even a NB within 30ft of it.

I just remembered ,on this trip we ran a big end thrashing the Kelvin going down the Weaver, stopped in the middle of nowhere to change the bearing,  got going again after half an hour.

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15 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

I seem to remember the lift was closed for some time and there were fears it would never reopen. We did a good coal trade to the lock keepers on the weaver before the lift closed.

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Must have been about the same time, I remember all the cogs laying there

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I recall the cogs were there for several years. Before closure in 1983, only the Western Caisson was in use.

 

Anderton Basin as first built was the up stream part of what was to become a double basin-the down stream adjoining basin being made later. The original basin was made in the early years of when incline railways were used there. With the making of the Boat Lift, the upstream basin fell into disuse

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What was the point of the Anderton lift in 1983? How had it survived that long? I first saw it in 1984 (I was small) and remember the counterweights and gear wheels lined up rather sadly adjacent to it. And whilst the canals were well past the days of likely abandonment by 1983, the Peak Forest was only reclassified from remainder-waterway in 1983 and upgraded back to Cruising Waterway.

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The lift was still used commercially into the 1960s, and I worked for Peter Froud with Charlie Atkins on Lapwing carrying passengers up and down the lift in 1972. The lift operator at the top used large quantities of sawdust to reduce leakage through the gates seals. I seem to remember that we always entered the lift stern first, as that was easier as we were travelling to or from Preston Brook on the canal.

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I gather whilst the commercial use dwindled, there was a use for an increasing passage by pleasure boaters between the Weaver and the Trent & Mersey Canal. Maintenance, for the lift, was minimal, if at all. There are recorded cases of the lift failing and also damage when in use, with motors burnt out. The decision to close the lift seem to have been on safety grounds as well as the cost for replacing worn and corroded elements of the structure. That it survived so long must be due to the dedication of the local BW staff, I suspect. Possibly there are those who look at this site might want to comment.

 

Also all those people who saved the lift also deserve a share of the credit and their recognition of the two engineers responsible for the original lift; Edwin Clark, designer and Edward Leader Williams who was Engineer to the Weaver Trustees. Then there is Emmerson Murgatroyd the builders of the lift and later J Saner whose conversion of the lift to electric power ensured the long life the lift had in commercial operation.

 

This is view in the dark days of closure.

 

     

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