Manchester docks

[Tony Wilding]

can anyone tell me if manchester is completely closed as as a Port, when was the last ships useing it, is the ship canal still in use, ?, what was the reason for its closure ?, tony w,

[Jim Brady]

I'm not sure what docks are still up the canal,they still run cruises up to Manchester and return by bus and visa versa,its not cheap I might add.What they are hoping for is when this Liverpool 2 dock opens here in Seaforth as you may know the ship will be on the west wall and laying in the river.It is expected that industrial sites will open up along the canal and barges/coasters will take cargo from these large vessels in the river and take these cargos to different places on the canal so maybe the canal will enjoy a renaissance.The canal is still used of course by tankers for Stanlow.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Manchester Canal still in use today and is being regenerated. Kellogs have introduced a new service running from Europe to Manchester mainly with their own products in 2000 tonne coasters but hope to develop this further, so all is not lost. The pleasure trips from Liverpool to Manchester are very expensive taking eight hours with a return to the Liverpool terminal by coach, trips can be done in reverse from Manchester with coach back to Manchester

[john sutton]

I,m fairly certain that there are no ships going into the main docks.
If they put a seagoing vessel in there it would stir up all the crxp that was originally polluting the water and has now settled to the bottom.
There are now expensive apartments where the old wharehouses used to be.People swim in the docks and there are fish thriving and a small yatch marina.Many years ago I used to winter a yatch there but last time I enquired I was informed that the locks at the top end(cant remember the name) would not be operated.There are berths right up to eccles but I don't know how many are still in use.
Eastham and Ellesmere Port where still active last time I went through there but that was in 90.
john sutton

[Tony Wilding]

thanks Jim and Ivan, would be nice to see some new life breathed into it , all that great excavation not completely wasted. a new news snippet on gcaptain, re containers, they are being sent by rail overland from china direct to hamburg,in half the sea time. tony w.

[Gulliver]

As a proud Mancunian by birth,(Mills Hill Bridge,Middleton,1952),and one who later lived near to Latchford Locks for 25 years or so,listening to ships and tugs whistles,and suffering the often prolonged delays and fumes of traffic holdups at the swing bridge,I'm happy to say none of you guys who transited the 'Big Ditch' 60,50,40,even 30 years ago would hardly recognise the area now.Gone are all the industries of a more prosperous but very grimy area. Falling in those murky sulphurous waters years ago would have quite likely poisoned you.Now we have clean air, and fish in quantity.

There are many articles to google of course .One such about the renaissance of freight is HERE



While I'm being nostalgic,I've just temporarily changed my avatar to the flag of Manchester-courtesy of our friend Galloway at the Flag Locker-sadly now in a spot of trouble which SEE.

Gulliver

[Jim Brady]

Saturday mornings on our local radio station we have a retired Mersey river pilot telling us whats going on on the river.He informs people of the best vantage points and times to view ships coming in and going out.Today he was telling of three tankers entering the locks for Stanlow,I didn't know until today that the locks for the Manchester Ship Canal can only take one ship at a time.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[John Arton]

There are two locks at Eastham
The fifty foot and the smaller lock alongside it which takes ships up to around 80 mtrs long such as the Arklow ships.
The ditch last time I was there, 5 yrs ago, was reasonably buy with some quite regular traffic of coal to Manisty, Ellesmere port had regular fertiliser shipments along with some exports of Gas production equipment from Air Products for a big LNG in north Africa.
Stanlow was a regular call for me with its 3 berths and the Island berths at Stanlow (on the Mersey side) were still in regular use.
Runcorn docks again had a regular trade in fertilisers products inwrads and road salt outwards. Then you had ICI (now Ineos) exporting well over a hundred thousand tons of Caustic Annually as well as some nasty gas that went down to Barry where it was the base for silicon sealant.
After Runcorn came Carrington where we used to take styrene monomer that was turned into all of those trays that you get your Macdonalds in. On the other side of Partington basin there was an outfit that used to regularly import chemicals (cannot remember their name).
Just further up on the old Partington power station berth there was a small container berth that had a weekly service. After that the next berth that I can recall was Spillars wharf at Salford that was regularly used by Arklow ships bringing wheat and barley in.
The MSC is now operated by Peel ports and there are plans to increase trade on it, especially when the new container terminal at Seaforth is built the plan being to run a feeder service up the canal to Salford.
There was aplan to build a big intermodal hub at Salford but think that has disappeared when Salford quays were revitalised with the BBC etc. moving up there.
There was a news item on the beeb the other day showing a swimming event that actually took place in Salford docks and the water looked really clean. I have actually seen fish in the canal as far up as Runcorn so they would not be fish that had come in from the Mersey via the locks.
We actually got delayed on one sailing due to a dolphin being trapped in the big lock at Eastham and it put the lock out of action until it could be tempted to leave.
Forgot, there are two chemical berths on the stbd. hand just as you leave the locks that are in regular use.
Years ago there was a plan to have a third entrance to the canal at Eastham via the QE2 dock. If you look at the QE2 dock from above you can see that when they constructed it they had that plan in place as in the top corner is the start of the branch off that would have led into the canal.
Obviously there used to be further locks in the past that have long been closed. Just below Runcorn high level there used to be a set which is where the navigable channel of the Mersey ends.
The ditch, though a pain in the butt with its long transit for us (14 hours from the Bar to Carrington was not unusual) I was always fascinated by it and had some great times and made many friends there. The history of the canal is in a book and I believe there is a video available. The history of Britains Industrial revolution can be seen on the MSC where a lot of the machinery in use is still the original water hydraulic from Parsons in Newcastle, used to swing a number of the bridges over the canal.
rgds
JA

[robpage]

Unlike most other British canals, the Manchester Ship Canal was never nationalised. In 1984 Salford City Council used a derelict land grant to purchase the docks at Salford from the Ship Canal Company, rebranding the area as Salford Quays. Principal developers Urban Waterside began redevelopment work the following year, by which time traffic on the canal's upper reaches had declined to such an extent that its owners considered closing it above Runcorn.In 1993 the Ship Canal Company was acquired by Peel Holdings;as of 2011 it is owned and operated by Peel Ports, which also owns the Port of Liverpool.The company announced a £50 billion Atlantic Gateway plan in 2011 to develop the Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal as a way of combating increasing road congestion. Their scheme involves the construction of a large distribution centre to be named Port Salford and an additional six sites along the canal for the loading and unloading of freight. Peel Ports predict that the number of containers transported along the canal could increase from the 8000 carried in 2010 to 100,000 by 2030

[Jim Brady]

I remember docking at Brown & Polson and paying off there and jumping the train back to Lime Street L'Pool.Where was that berth,was it Warrington?
Regards.
Jim.B.