The Manchester Ship Canal in photographs

A selection of photographs taken around and along the canal, from Barton and Irlam down to Stanlow and the Mersey Estuary.

The canal is best photographed working: gates opening, bridges swinging, ships under way. Click any image for a larger view.

Bridges and locks

The swing bridges at Barton opening to allow a ship to pass — **The swing bridges at Barton opening.** The road bridge turned alongside the bank, with the swing aqueduct beside it.

Brindley’s 1767 aqueduct carrying the Bridgewater Canal over the River Irwell — **Brindley’s original aqueduct.** Part of the 1767 structure, which the Barton Swing Aqueduct replaced.

The Runcorn to Widnes link bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal — **The Runcorn to Widnes link bridge.** One of the twentieth century additions to the canal’s crossings.

Sluice gates at Stanlow keeping the canal level even — **Sluice gates at Stanlow.** Thousands of gallons of water flow off the canal into the Mersey to keep an even level.

Ships and docks

Ships at Ellesmere Port on the Manchester Ship Canal — **Ships at Ellesmere Port.** The canal’s connection to the Mersey, and still a working port.

A narrow canal cutting between brick walls with a mill chimney beyond — **A canal cutting.** A quiet stretch of canal, with a mill chimney on the skyline — the sort of view the Ship Canal replaced with something altogether larger.

Aerial view of Mode Wheel Locks on the Manchester Ship Canal — **Mode Wheel Locks from the air.** The final set of locks before the terminal docks at Salford.

Missing from this gallery. The original page carried photographs of the Mode Wheel lock gates opening, the new footbridge at Salford Quays in its raised position, a ship coming into Irlam Locks with the fire brigade hosing down an expanded bridge, a petrochemical dock by Irlam, Warburton Road Bridge, a commercial dock by Warburton, Latchford Locks, London Road Bridge, the chemical tanker Curzola at Stanlow, the Arklow Valour, old lock gates at Runcorn, the 250 tonne crane used for changing lock gates, and a view across the Mersey Estuary to Liverpool’s Pier Head. None of those files was captured by the Internet Archive, and no copies are known to exist.

The bridge that got stuck

One of the photographs that has not survived carried the best story in the original gallery. A swing bridge at Barton, having been opened to let a ship pass, expanded in the heat of the sun and became stuck when it came to close. The fire brigade then took on a regular summer duty of hosing the bridge down, cooling the steel until it contracted enough to return to its normal position.

It is a reminder that a Victorian swing bridge is a very large piece of steel sitting in the open, and that thermal expansion is not a hypothetical problem at that scale.

Reading the canal from the water

Almost all of these photographs were taken from the bank, which shapes what is visible: locks and bridges photograph well from above, ships less so. The exceptions are the ones taken from the air, which show the canal as it actually is — a straight, artificial cut across the landscape, with the towns and industry laid out along it.

The history of the canal, including how it was built and what it carried, is on the main Ship Canal page.