The Anderton Boat Lift

The Anderton lift was without doubt the highlight of our fifth day on Solace.  The shot is taken looking back as we left the lift on the River Weaver.  At the bottom right of the structure is the open Caisson which brought us down the 50 feet from the T & M canal.  Each caisson is capable of carrying two 70 feet by 7 feet narrowboats and enough water to float them.

The lift was built to replace the salt chutes and cranes which were being used to transfer cargo from the canal to the River Weaver.  The Weaver had been made navigable and leads down to the sea where the cargo could be shipped to any destination.

It is a truly awesome piece of Victorian engineering and worth a run on the trip boat if you are in the area.  Originally operated on hydraulics run by water corrosion proved to be a problem so it was converted to cables and gears.  Going out of use in 1983 due to corrosion it was restored in 2001/2 with the aid of lottery funding and is once again hydraulic but uses oil.