Worsley, Bridgewater Canal

[Peter-Bullfinch]

I thought some of might be interested in a few pictures taken this evening of the tidying up of the Delph. This is being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. I do hope they don't mancure it all. It's quite an atmospheric place but it has needed a much overdue bit of gardening.

[Sea Dog]

Very interesting Peter, thanks.  All the more so as a look for myself in the next week or so is on the cards if the Marple repairs are successful. The canal water looks like Irn-bru! Is there a jockanese bottling plant nearby?

[Pluto]

This must be the fourth or fifth time the Delph has been 'tidied up' in my recollection. I helped with a archaeological report made after excavating a couple of pits to see if the original level of the section between the two tunnels could be identified. There was a system of underground passageways which could allow the tunnels to be drained for maintenance, and they can be seen on the 1785 map below. Talking to maintenance men, they suggested that the tunnel from the water mill could also be used to create a circulation of water in the Delph, allowing sediment from the mines to settle before the water fed into the main canal. The Delph would be dredged regularly to encourage this effect and remove the silt. It was probably a simpler solution than spending vast amounts on settling pits away from the canal.

[NB Esk]

I must have had a false memory, I always thought that the "starvationer" boats had their ribs and framings on the outside, to facilitate easy unloading.  The photo on the information board clearly shows them on the inside?

[Pluto]

The photo does show some of the final large mine boats as used for carrying coal. The four small boats in museums etc, which are often called starvationers today, are actually maintenance boats. There were a whole range of different boat sizes in the mines, the size being dependent upon which section of the mine they were to serve. I have a photocopy of a 1779 record showing seven distinct types, with five having two different sizes. The baskets used for carrying coal were originally much smaller than the boxes used on the later box-boats, and were around 3ft by 12ft and 1ft deep, and could carry from 120lb to 240lb of coal. Little detailed research has been published on the development of the mine and boats, though some fascinating archive material survives.