Manchester’s Shortest Canal and the Medlock-Irwell Junction
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
- Welcome to the Hulme Branch Canal, not only Manchester's shortest canal still connected at both ends, but also the city's first watery connection between the canal system and the rivers.
The triangular-shaped St George's island holds much history, including a mysterious (for me at least) semi-circular cut-out in the floor. But its the lock at the end of the canal that holds all of the story - 150 years of barges and navvies, coal and cotton and corn.
Finally, I trace the final stages of the River Medlock as it appears at the Giant's Basin in Castlefield and then trickles into the River Irwell. A mighty junction of Manchester's waterways indeed.
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Bee here now you asked for photos of the swing Bridge on the island?....
Well in your video at 6:19 in the dead centre of the photo you can see the swing Bridge with its white hand rails. The semi circular cut out and what appears to be a bricked in area as seen today from above shots earlier in your video of the semi circle.
You can also see the area the tail or the back leg of the 'b' cut out where the Bridge stows when open to allow traffic.
Also it clearly shows on the map just when he asks the question that it was a swing bridge. However, I've never seen a swing footbridge over a lock. WoW!
@@danieltoth-nagy5097 Older locks didn't have the walkway on top of them to get across.
@@sparkyprojects was this swing bridge for boaters, rather than for the public?
@@danieltoth-nagy5097 I don't know the history, but considering that the lock keepers cottage was on the island, i guess it was mostly for him
Great vid Ollie; to restore the Hulme lock and branch seems like a no-brainer to me; it would open up the River Irwell and Manchester docks to pleasure craft and would be enormously popular and would be really good for tourism for relatively little expense...
This area was on my foot beat as a young Bobbie in the late 70’s. Happy memories. Thank you.
Nice to see Irwell at 2:00. Leeds and Liverpool shortboat that I helped take to the Lymm IWA Rally in 1972.
I regularly used Hulme Locks in the mid 70s, carrying grain from Liverpool via the Leeds Liverpool and Bridgewater canals, we locked down to the Irwell and thence to the BOCM mill on the Ship Canal opposite the end of No 9 dock.
Great video ...... my first job upon leaving school at 15 years old back in 1968 was as an apprentice panel beater at a garage owned by a guy called Tommy Ashcroft ...... the garage was T.Ashcroft & Son , it was situated on the left just over the little bridge and lock keepers cottage where the Rochdale canal enters the basin , across from the garage and underneath the railway arches used to be a very ramshackle array of stables and horse drawn carts, this was where Manchester’s rag and bone men used to be able to hire a horse and cart for the day and go around Manchester collecting all the unwanted scrap etc, needless to say that the place stunk to high heaven with all of the horse shit and old hay just left in a big heap to decay ..... the men who lined up every morning waiting for their horse and cart where mainly Manchester’s down and outs and they didn’t smell very nice either, stale booze and cigarettes ....... there was also a timber merchants alongside the Rochdale canal on the left .... I didn’t stay working there very long as the older guys at the garage thought it was ok to have everyday as an initiation day and thought that it was very funny to grease your balls or throw you into the canal every lunchtime, me and my mate Leo would lock ourselves into a customer’s car but then the guys would surround the car and start rocking it up and down, I quit and then got a job as an apprentice electrician with a small firm in George Street just behind the Art Gallery.
Happy Days .......... not .......
Ollie rockin a Mohawk, Lookin sharp.
Haha, thanks. Got bored in lockdown
That was dead good these videos make me really homesick
Only two minutes in and I can only doff my cap to you mate great work! Carry on canals lol best wishes and take
Thanks! 😁
Love the videos mate. Me and my mate are bricklaying on castlefield basin and we spend hours marvelling at the feats of engineering and recycling all your awesome knowledge 👍 one love ❤️ MCR
Thanks man, that's really nice! Glad you find them interesting 👍
Another great video - I must of passed here thousands of times well done 👍
Thanks! Me too. It just caught my eye this time
Really liked the vid - I walked right past St George island just a few hours ago, I had a walk along the Bridgewater on my lunch break. Great learning all this about the area!
Cool video, definitely looks like there was once a swing bridge. keep em coming Ollie. that's the best Lockdown haircut i've seen yet 👍
Haha thanks!
Hi Ollie,
Short but sweet, and as usual, full of information and some brilliant old photos. I'm always struck by the bad graffiti everywhere, and the sense that having invested in improving certain areas, the same areas are then forgotten about and left to become run down all over again. No money for maintenance?
Thanks again for a great little video.....
The geese crossing the road footage was brilliant!
Thanks. You're right there about the investment, unfortunately
Great local histories. Manchester has so much more of it. It all started there. What with this and all the urban exploration stuff related, Manchester is really an amazing place and I regret I never have been there long enough to discover it all.
I think that swingy thing is a bridge. The footprint in the aerial photo looks right. The OS map symbol has the canal sides as two lines under the symbol so it figures that the thing crosses the canal but is temporary. I think the squiggly S things on the locks and other structures mean they are moveable.
The geese outside the youth hostel are noisy buggers and with the overflow running like a waterfall, you think you're in the sticks if you close your eyes.
The photo at 6m20s shows the foot swing bridge in situe
Good spot. It's also marked on the map/plans when he's asking about it, it has the same markings as the foot bridge below, in drafting the symbols indicating a typical feature. You can also see the path leading up to where the bridge would have been when turned open in the next shot where he's standing in the round area. It's cool they left all that there.
brill video as usual. you should do a video about the bridge you where on at the end "mark addy's bridge"
Industry started much further up the Medlock than Clayton mate. Check out Park bridge where I live. Cotton mill with water wheel built in the 18th century. Come pay us a visit 👍🏼 really enjoying your videos.
There is a similar swing bridge on Liverpool Rd Warrington near to the junction of Hood Lane. It fits the same sort of footprint
Stop apologizing!!! Lol. Your videos are bloody brilliant!! Xx
Thank you, that really means a lot! Can't promise you anything though. 😊
Wow! Fantastic video mate. ..gives me food for thought I might just stick to writing a book about canals coz you're killing it !but egerton saw French canals and copied them...look into it not the first in the world just first in Britain
Had a bit of trouble getting my bearings here. Think I've got it now after looking at Google maps. What a strange place.
All I can think about is how lovely these places would be for the public to walk around if they could just clean them up and add some amenities.
Agreed! Thanks for watching
Great video - I'm really enjoying watching these and improving my knowledge of Manc geography and history, you have a natural talent and the delivery fits in very well with the vibe of the vlogs. Can you tell me where the arches (at 8.36) are in relation to the island - are they easily accessible? (I don't want to do drug deals or knock anyone off - just I love places like this)
Cheers thanks very much. Glad you liked the video. Those arches are accessable off the main road (end of the mancunian way), right next to the railway viaduct there's a little road. You can't get there from the island, even if you walk all the way around the canal basin.
I think the geese own the area! They keep popping up on Facebook
That swingy thing looks very like a bridge from that aerial photo with its footprint below. You can see the outline of the pivot and space for the counterweight. The symbol on the OS map looks like one might for a swing bridge because the symbol goes right across but the canal sides are visible underneath. This looks like what they'd do for a symbol for a movable structure. I think the S thing in the middle means its moveable as its on the lock gates too.
Thanks a lot very much appreciated. Yeah I agree about the bridge.
Love all the hidden history in this town, and sad how the council ignores/forgets to preserve its own history... 🙁😢
(Pst if you get (even a little) microphone the sound would be better, or when you turn away...)
True! I'm saving up for one. Thank you!
It was a swing bridge