The Wheel of Life keeps turning...: Anderton Boat Lift, Northwich

I belong to a Hale-Altrincham women's meetup group, and on Saturday, we had an excursion to the Anderton Boat Lift down in Northwich. I love things that showcase engineering and technology, so this was an exciting trip for me to begin with, and to make it even better, we had a rare weekend of absolutely stunning, perfect fall weather with no rain and abundant sunshine.

There was a group of 9 of us, and I carpooled down with two other ladies that I know fairly well who also live in Altrincham. We had booked an 11:30 AM boat lift down followed by a short river cruise. The industrial history of the Northwich area and the canal systems is fascinating, but I'll try not to make this a huge history lesson.

England has lots of rivers, but many of them were not naturally navigable. Also, as industry and the economy developed in the 18th century, transporting goods over land with unpaved country roads was not efficient enough to support trade and growth. So beginning in 1700, merchants and companies began building navigable river beds as well as canals. Most of these canals and associated infrastructure were not built by the government; they were built by private companies and investors. Capitalism is good. There's some detailed history on the Canal and River Trust's website.

The canal system with horse-drawn narrow boats was highly successful and profitable for moving goods around the country. But profit incentive and the need for ever greater efficiency led to on-going developments and enhancements. One of these was the Anderton Boat Lift, which ingenuously solved the problem of how to move goods up and down between the Trent & Mersey Canal and the River Weaver, a drop of 50 feet! Rather than move the goods, they would move the barges.

The engineer Edwin Clark was hired, and in 1875 he designed and built the world's first hydraulic boat lift, with 250 tons of displacement. Our boat captain cum tour guide told us about some of the failure modes that occurred over time and how they were addressed with subsequent design changes. It was absolutely amazing. As one of the ladies in our group pointed out, the incredible thing is that this was something that had never been done before. Later lifts could copy Clark's design principles and incorporate his lessons learned, but at Anderton, it was just a vision to be realized.

The top level of the lift, with lanes for two boats

Another view of the top level

A close-up showing the hydraulic ram underneath each of the two caissons

After we finished going down the lift -- a journey of about 3 minutes -- we continued on for a short cruise on the River Weaver from Anderton down to Northwich, with plenty more industrial history included by our wonderful tour guide.

A view from the bottom/river level

Moving on to our short cruise on the River Weaver

Massive deposits of rock salt have existed in Cheshire for ~220 million years, and archaeologists have found evidence of salt mining in the region dating back to the Iron Age and later, in Roman times. Salt mining was documented in William The Conqueror's Doomsday Book. Modern salt production started in Northwich in the 17th century, and salt was a huge part of the industry that fueled the canal building and the Anderton Boat Lift. With the Industrial Revolution, the area around Anderton became an industrial wasteland. Back then, wastes and by-products were dumped where ever.

Then someone came up with the great idea to increase the productivity of the salt mines by flushing the mines with hot water. The hot water dissolved the salt, and the briny solution was pumped up to the surface and dried. Fantastic gain in productivity. However, the hot water dissolved everything in the mines, weakening the structures, resulting in mines collapsing and subsidence. Mine sinkholes opened up and quickly filled with water, producing a geographic feature referred to as a "flash". Buildings in Northwich fell victim to subsidence and were swallowed by the earth or had to be demolished. For decades, no building was allowed in Northwich unless it was a wood-framed structure, because wood was more flexible and resistant to structural collapse with subsidence. The houses were built on jacks, so that corners could be jacked up if the earth shifted, or the entire house could be lifted up and moved to a new location.

Modern Northwich; not very nice

The mining companies and the residents of Norwich dealt with subsidence for decades, but by 1928, things were just too bad. Also, Britain's economy had already been struggling throughout the 1920s in the aftermath of World War I. No longer safe or profitable for operation, the salt mines closed, and the mining moved to another location in Cheshire.

One good thing that came out of the subsidence disaster is that they developed floating concrete platforms and pontoons, which enabled construction that could move up and down as the briny, boggy, unsound land around it did. This technology was used by Messrs. Jos. Parkes & Son of Northwich to design and build the Mulberry Habour used in the D-Day Invasion of Normandy. (that was an unexpected tie-in to my July holiday in France when we visited the Normandy Beaches)

Here's the really cool part -- for decades, the former industrial wasteland was left abandoned. And Nature returned. The national government and the Cheshire County Council gave things a helping hand, but the heavy lift was done by Nature. In some cases in as little as 40 years, the area has returned to rich, green woodland filled with a diversity of flora and wildlife. The area around Anderton including some of the "flashes" are now all community woodlands and parks. The river has been cleaned up and is now a joy for boating, fishing and kayaking.

Humans always worry that we're destroying the Earth, and we *should* be good stewards of the environment. But Saturday reminded me very strongly that no matter how bad we screw things up, Nature always finds a way.

After the boat cruise, we ate lunch in the visitor centre coffee shop. One of the many things I love about the UK is the quality of the cafes and coffee shops you find. In America, you tend to find a lot of packaged crap or hot dogs or pizza slices. In the UK, they mostly have delicious, fresh-prepared foods and baked goods. Real, honest food.

We also browsed through the small museum. There were some interesting displays on the distinctive and unique canal narrow boat culture that developed around families living on their barges, complete with their own style of decorative arts. It has been very interesting for me to learn about the richness of the canal history and culture in England.

We headed home to Altrincham around 2:45 pm. Here are a couple of last looks at the canal at Anderton, still very much in use today, although used strictly for recreation and living now instead of industry. Open up the first picture to take a closer look at the decorative paint on the rear of the narrow boat. The "roses and castles" are very typical of traditional English canal art.