Anderton Boat Lift facts for kids

Anderton Boat Lift

The Anderton Boat Lift is an amazing machine in Cheshire, North West England. It's like a giant elevator for boats! This special lift connects two waterways: the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal. It helps boats travel up or down a huge 50-foot (about 15-meter) difference in water level.

Built way back in 1875, the boat lift worked for over 100 years. But then, in 1983, it had to close because parts of it were rusting. Luckily, it was fixed up and reopened in 2002. Today, the Canal & River Trust looks after it, along with a visitor center where you can learn all about it. It's one of only two working boat lifts in the whole United Kingdom!

Why Was the Lift Built?
Designing the Giant Boat Elevator
Building the Lift
Problems with the Water System
Changing to Electric Power
Working Life and Closure
Bringing the Lift Back to Life
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Why Was the Lift Built?

Aerial view of the Anderton Boat Lift and the basin on the River Weaver

For a very long time, people in Cheshire have been digging up salt from underground. By the late 1600s, there was a big salt industry in towns like Northwich and Winsford.

Boats were used to carry this salt. The River Weaver was made easier for boats to use in 1734. This helped move salt from Winsford to the River Mersey. Later, in 1777, the Trent and Mersey Canal opened. It also helped move goods, especially coal and pottery from places like Stoke-on-Trent.

Instead of competing, the owners of the river and the canal decided to work together. They built a special basin (a small harbor) at Anderton in 1793. This basin brought the river right to the foot of the canal, which was 50 feet higher! Workers had to move goods from boats on the river to boats on the canal using cranes and ramps. This was slow and cost a lot of money.

Designing the Giant Boat Elevator

By 1870, the Anderton Basin was a very busy place for moving goods. But moving everything by hand was still hard and expensive. So, the people in charge of the River Weaver decided they needed a direct link between the two waterways. They thought about building a series of locks, but that would have used too much water and there wasn't a good spot for them.

So, in 1870, they suggested building a boat lift! They asked their chief engineer, Edward Leader Williams, to draw up plans. He came up with a clever idea: two big, water-filled boxes called caissons. These caissons would balance each other, so it wouldn't take much power to lift them up and down.

Anderton Boat Lift – diagram of the original hydraulic system.

Leader Williams decided to use powerful water-filled cylinders, called hydraulic rams, to support the caissons. These rams would be buried underground. This meant the structure above ground could be much lighter. He got help from an expert hydraulic engineer named Edwin Clark.

The lift was built on a small island in the Anderton Basin. The caissons were made of strong iron. Each one was 75 feet (about 23 meters) long, 15 feet 6 inches (about 4.7 meters) wide, and 9 feet 6 inches (about 2.9 meters) deep. They were big enough for two narrowboats or one wider barge. Each caisson weighed 90 tons when empty and 252 tons when full of water (boats don't change the weight because they float!).

Each caisson sat on a huge hydraulic ram. This ram was a 50-foot (about 15-meter) long iron piston inside a buried iron cylinder. When the lift was working normally, water would flow between the two cylinders. This made the heavier caisson go down and the lighter one go up. A steam engine helped make small adjustments.

Building the Lift

The plan for the boat lift was approved in 1872. A company called Emmerson, Murgatroyd & Co. won the job to build it. Work started in late 1872 and took about two and a half years.

The Anderton Boat Lift officially opened on July 26, 1875. The total cost was about £48,428, which was a lot of money back then!

Problems with the Water System

For five years, the boat lift worked well. The only times it closed were when the canal froze in winter. But in 1882, one of the big iron hydraulic cylinders burst! Luckily, no one was hurt, and the boat wasn't damaged. As a safety check, they tested the other cylinder, and it broke too!

The lift had to close for six months while new parts were put in. The main problem was that the pistons (the moving parts of the rams) were rusting. The canal water used in the system was causing corrosion. They tried to fix it, but the rust kept coming back.

In 1897, they started using distilled water (very pure water) in the system to slow down the rust. But it didn't stop it completely. The lift needed more and more repairs, often closing down or running very slowly.

Changing to Electric Power

By 1904, the people running the lift knew they had to do something big. Their chief engineer, Colonel J. A. Saner, suggested changing the lift to use electric motors instead of water power.

Anderton Boat Lift – diagram after conversion to electrical operation.

This new system would use electric motors, counterweights, and pulleys. The great thing about this was that all the moving parts would be above ground. This made them much easier and cheaper to fix. Plus, the caissons could now work independently, meaning one could be used while the other was being repaired.

Because the weight of the caissons would now be held by the lift's frame (instead of the underground rams), the frame had to be made much stronger. They built a new steel frame around the old one so they wouldn't have to close the lift for a long time. This new frame had ten large steel A-shapes that held up a platform with the electric motors and pulleys.

Strong wire ropes were attached to each side of the caissons. These ropes went over the pulleys and were connected to 36 heavy cast iron counterweights. These weights helped balance the 252-ton caissons. A 30-horsepower electric motor provided the power.

The wet dock at river level was also changed into a dry dock. The aqueduct (the bridge carrying the canal to the lift) was also made stronger. The original caissons were kept but changed to hold the new wire ropes.

The conversion happened between 1906 and 1908. Just as Saner promised, the lift only closed for three short periods during this time, for a total of 49 days. The electrically powered lift officially opened on July 29, 1908.

Working Life and Closure

After being converted to electric power, the boat lift worked well for 75 years! It still needed regular care, like replacing the wire ropes, but maintenance was much easier because everything was above ground.

During the 1950s and 1960s, fewer commercial boats used the canals. By the 1970s, the lift was mostly used by pleasure boats.

The new steel frame of the lift started to rust over time. It was painted regularly to protect it. But in 1983, during a repaint, a lot of rust was found. The lift was declared unsafe and had to close.

Bringing the Lift Back to Life

In the 1990s, plans began to restore the lift. At first, they thought about making it electric again. But after talking with experts, they decided in 1997 to bring back the original hydraulic (water-powered) system, but using special hydraulic oil instead of canal water.

It cost £7 million to restore the lift! Many groups and over 2,000 people helped raise the money. The Heritage Lottery Fund gave a big part of it.

Restoration started in 2000, and the lift reopened to boats in March 2002. Now, there's a modern visitor center with a coffee shop and information about the lift's history. Even though the lift uses the old hydraulic system again, the big steel frame and pulleys from the electric conversion are still there, but they don't work anymore. The old counterweights are now part of a maze in the visitor center's grounds!