Lecture Reports 2023 - 24
THE ANDERTON BOAT LIFT - Monday 8th April 2024 by Jim Corbridge
MIHS was pleased to welcome our lecturer, Jim Corbridge, who is an engineer and has been a volunteer guide at the Anderton Boat lift for two years. The lift connects two waterways: the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal. The Northwich area has been built around the salt industry where the history of salt springs goes back to the Iron Age and later, the time of the Romans. Roman soldiers were paid a salarium with which they bought salt, and from this comes the word “salary’ meaning wages.
Until 1670 salt came from brine springs which were heated in houses and salt was left after the water evaporated. The houses where this occurred where known as ‘wiches”, hence the names of the local salt towns as Northwich, Middlewich etc. In 1670 John Jackson from Marbury dug a hole in his land to look for coal. Instead, he found salt, and this led to a huge expansion of salt mines along the River Weaver, which sometimes led to collapses of the mines known as a “flash”. The salt seam was 150 feet down and was a very thick, extending all the way south to Droitwich. The salt needed to be transported and at first this was done on barges (known as Weaver Flats) on the river, pulled by packhorses. However, the river was tidal which caused many problems. This was overcome to some extent by the Weaver Navigation which in 1734 made it possible to transport salt as far as Winsford and then on to Frodsham.
In 1777 the Trent and Mersey canal was completed, and this ran from Shardlow in Derbyshire to Preston Brook in Cheshire, running parallel with the Weaver Navigation for some distance. This canal transported several products, including salt, china clay for the pottery industry and flint. Cargo started to be transferred from the canal to the river Weaver, but this was difficult to achieve, and several different solutions were considered. These included a very long flight of locks, as well as a chute system, as the canal was at a different height to the river, but there was not enough water to service such a large number of locks. However, engineers came up with a final answer to this problem by designing and building the Anderton boat lift which was completed in 1875.
Edwin Leader Williams drew up plans for a boat lift and Edwin Clark was appointed to design a hydraulic lift system which used river water to operate, using the Archimedes principle. The final design involved the construction of two wrought iron caissons, which could accommodate a maximum of 4 barges at a time and would move the barges from one level to the other using the weight of water. Jim used diagrams and a simple model to show how this would work and we were shown the different working parts of the boat lift on photographs. The lift was capable of handling 16 barges every hour and bargees were charged by the size and 2 weight of their barges.
In the first year of working in 1875, 17,000 tons of cargo came through the lift, which rose to 192,000 in 1906. However, the boat lift encountered several operating issues which were managed by the resourceful engineers. One of the problems which occurred from 1884 onwards was corrosion, which led to the seals leaking which stopped operation of the lift. So, in 1908 a new lift mechanism was designed by chief engineer Colonel John Saner. This was installed with A-frames and an electric drive which used pulleys and ropes to lift the caissons and the wet basin was converted into a dry basin.
With the outbreak of World War One, (and then WW2) the boat lift lost many of its workers who joined the army and there was an upsurge in road transport to the detriment of the canals. In 1976 English Heritage designated the boat lift as a scheduled monument. However, the upkeep of the lift was a constant problem, given that it needed painting every 5 years and there were other problems in its management, and in 1983 it was shut down completely and disassembled. This was of course not the end of the story, as the local canal society started raising awareness about the importance of the Anderton boat lift. A petition was raised in the 1980s which obtained 15,000 signatures, but Margaret Thatcher’s government said there was no money to restore it. Ultimately, several fundraising activities and a bid to the National Lottery raised £7.7 million which was used to restore the boat lift. It was reopened in 2002 with a working hydraulic lift. The Anderton Boat Centre now attracts 3,200 boats a year and 120,000 visitors, who can experience the boat lift on a canal boat and take a trip from Anderton to Northwich and back. What a great achievement for everyone involved in its resurrection. Thank you to all those who helped making the evening a success.
ANNA ALEXANDER
MEMBERS EVENING - Monday 12th February 2024
Members’ Evening started a wee bit late, there was a serious problem on Merseyrail, with little or no trains on the Wirral Lines. We started with 16 people and gradually more fraught members arrived and the number went up to 20. Tim and Viv texted in to say they were giving up as there was no sign of the rail replacement bus.
JOHN LUXTON - “Levant, the Mine under the Sea” The Levant Copper Company had origins as early as Elizabethan times and the company struggled on until 1930 producing copper, tin and arsenic. Geevor, an adjacent mine “broke through” and accessed Levant until the Tin Crisis in the 1990 when Geevor was forced to close due to the depressed price of tin. Geevor is now a Mining Museum and the adjacent Levant site, which includes an historic beam engine, is now in the care of the National Trust.
A terrible accident in 1919 took the lives of 31 men when the “man engine” (a sort of elevator, whereby adjacent “ladders” oscillate and to go up (or down) the miner leapt from one ladder to the adjacent one). After this accident the similar man engine at Laxey Mine was closed. As John said, the breakage occurred at the worst possible place on the engine, when the fulcrum was at its uppermost reach, it snapped, and the percussive force of the drop from that position, caused the various safety catches to break off.
JOHN HORNE - “I found these old photos" Our first image showed City Engineer John Brodie with his chauffeur in Aigburth getting into a horseless carriage, about 1903. Then followed pictures of Liverpool fire engines called “steamers”, which we learned were kept ready for action with a fire burning to keep some pressure up in the boiler and pump, the fire station at Hatton Garden. The registrations of these vehicles were interesting “K-1508” (note hyphen) and “K-1515”. Then we saw a road roller, tramcars and what were at the time modern flats in Eldon St Liverpool in 1903. We saw a view of Liverpool during the Police Strike, when policemen from Birmingham were railed in to Liverpool. John said he’d bought all the pictures at an antique shop in Llandudno. M
MALCOLM VERITY - “Searching for Industrial Heritage in California” The talk centred on the production and history of nitroglycerine at the “Giant Powder Co”. There were lots of accidents and one explosion that was so bad that the company relocated totally to a new site. We then saw some old fairground rides and a giant wooden dipper at Santa Cruz.
JOHN RYAN - “The Chester to Birkenhead line in steam days” What a nostalgic pleasure to have a slide presentation. We were centred around the Chester and Birkenhead Railway with John showing one of his first colour slides, the date being 1961. We saw Spital station with a distinctly LNW (London and Northwestern) look, with its gas lamps and architecture. Chester Station with lots of lower quadrant signals (those are ones that go down for “go”). I think that’s a Great Western thing.
PETER PURLAND - “Scenes from a Scottish Township” Powerful landlords restricted the growth of towns in some parts of Scotland. The result was “townships”. These powerful lairds controlled what the residents might do as an occupation, such as change from arable to sheep farming. The views were quite sad really with evidence of poverty and lack of amenities. How we crammed in five speakers and a break for tea or coffee and ended by nine o’clock was some sort of miracle. All the speakers were given the traditional round of applause by way of thanks.
MIHS was pleased to welcome our lecturer, Jim Corbridge, who is an engineer and has been a volunteer guide at the Anderton Boat lift for two years. The lift connects two waterways: the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal. The Northwich area has been built around the salt industry where the history of salt springs goes back to the Iron Age and later, the time of the Romans. Roman soldiers were paid a salarium with which they bought salt, and from this comes the word “salary’ meaning wages.
Until 1670 salt came from brine springs which were heated in houses and salt was left after the water evaporated. The houses where this occurred where known as ‘wiches”, hence the names of the local salt towns as Northwich, Middlewich etc. In 1670 John Jackson from Marbury dug a hole in his land to look for coal. Instead, he found salt, and this led to a huge expansion of salt mines along the River Weaver, which sometimes led to collapses of the mines known as a “flash”. The salt seam was 150 feet down and was a very thick, extending all the way south to Droitwich. The salt needed to be transported and at first this was done on barges (known as Weaver Flats) on the river, pulled by packhorses. However, the river was tidal which caused many problems. This was overcome to some extent by the Weaver Navigation which in 1734 made it possible to transport salt as far as Winsford and then on to Frodsham.
In 1777 the Trent and Mersey canal was completed, and this ran from Shardlow in Derbyshire to Preston Brook in Cheshire, running parallel with the Weaver Navigation for some distance. This canal transported several products, including salt, china clay for the pottery industry and flint. Cargo started to be transferred from the canal to the river Weaver, but this was difficult to achieve, and several different solutions were considered. These included a very long flight of locks, as well as a chute system, as the canal was at a different height to the river, but there was not enough water to service such a large number of locks. However, engineers came up with a final answer to this problem by designing and building the Anderton boat lift which was completed in 1875.
Edwin Leader Williams drew up plans for a boat lift and Edwin Clark was appointed to design a hydraulic lift system which used river water to operate, using the Archimedes principle. The final design involved the construction of two wrought iron caissons, which could accommodate a maximum of 4 barges at a time and would move the barges from one level to the other using the weight of water. Jim used diagrams and a simple model to show how this would work and we were shown the different working parts of the boat lift on photographs. The lift was capable of handling 16 barges every hour and bargees were charged by the size and 2 weight of their barges.
In the first year of working in 1875, 17,000 tons of cargo came through the lift, which rose to 192,000 in 1906. However, the boat lift encountered several operating issues which were managed by the resourceful engineers. One of the problems which occurred from 1884 onwards was corrosion, which led to the seals leaking which stopped operation of the lift. So, in 1908 a new lift mechanism was designed by chief engineer Colonel John Saner. This was installed with A-frames and an electric drive which used pulleys and ropes to lift the caissons and the wet basin was converted into a dry basin.
With the outbreak of World War One, (and then WW2) the boat lift lost many of its workers who joined the army and there was an upsurge in road transport to the detriment of the canals. In 1976 English Heritage designated the boat lift as a scheduled monument. However, the upkeep of the lift was a constant problem, given that it needed painting every 5 years and there were other problems in its management, and in 1983 it was shut down completely and disassembled. This was of course not the end of the story, as the local canal society started raising awareness about the importance of the Anderton boat lift. A petition was raised in the 1980s which obtained 15,000 signatures, but Margaret Thatcher’s government said there was no money to restore it. Ultimately, several fundraising activities and a bid to the National Lottery raised £7.7 million which was used to restore the boat lift. It was reopened in 2002 with a working hydraulic lift. The Anderton Boat Centre now attracts 3,200 boats a year and 120,000 visitors, who can experience the boat lift on a canal boat and take a trip from Anderton to Northwich and back. What a great achievement for everyone involved in its resurrection. Thank you to all those who helped making the evening a success.
ANNA ALEXANDER
MEMBERS EVENING - Monday 12th February 2024
Members’ Evening started a wee bit late, there was a serious problem on Merseyrail, with little or no trains on the Wirral Lines. We started with 16 people and gradually more fraught members arrived and the number went up to 20. Tim and Viv texted in to say they were giving up as there was no sign of the rail replacement bus.
JOHN LUXTON - “Levant, the Mine under the Sea” The Levant Copper Company had origins as early as Elizabethan times and the company struggled on until 1930 producing copper, tin and arsenic. Geevor, an adjacent mine “broke through” and accessed Levant until the Tin Crisis in the 1990 when Geevor was forced to close due to the depressed price of tin. Geevor is now a Mining Museum and the adjacent Levant site, which includes an historic beam engine, is now in the care of the National Trust.
A terrible accident in 1919 took the lives of 31 men when the “man engine” (a sort of elevator, whereby adjacent “ladders” oscillate and to go up (or down) the miner leapt from one ladder to the adjacent one). After this accident the similar man engine at Laxey Mine was closed. As John said, the breakage occurred at the worst possible place on the engine, when the fulcrum was at its uppermost reach, it snapped, and the percussive force of the drop from that position, caused the various safety catches to break off.
JOHN HORNE - “I found these old photos" Our first image showed City Engineer John Brodie with his chauffeur in Aigburth getting into a horseless carriage, about 1903. Then followed pictures of Liverpool fire engines called “steamers”, which we learned were kept ready for action with a fire burning to keep some pressure up in the boiler and pump, the fire station at Hatton Garden. The registrations of these vehicles were interesting “K-1508” (note hyphen) and “K-1515”. Then we saw a road roller, tramcars and what were at the time modern flats in Eldon St Liverpool in 1903. We saw a view of Liverpool during the Police Strike, when policemen from Birmingham were railed in to Liverpool. John said he’d bought all the pictures at an antique shop in Llandudno. M
MALCOLM VERITY - “Searching for Industrial Heritage in California” The talk centred on the production and history of nitroglycerine at the “Giant Powder Co”. There were lots of accidents and one explosion that was so bad that the company relocated totally to a new site. We then saw some old fairground rides and a giant wooden dipper at Santa Cruz.
JOHN RYAN - “The Chester to Birkenhead line in steam days” What a nostalgic pleasure to have a slide presentation. We were centred around the Chester and Birkenhead Railway with John showing one of his first colour slides, the date being 1961. We saw Spital station with a distinctly LNW (London and Northwestern) look, with its gas lamps and architecture. Chester Station with lots of lower quadrant signals (those are ones that go down for “go”). I think that’s a Great Western thing.
PETER PURLAND - “Scenes from a Scottish Township” Powerful landlords restricted the growth of towns in some parts of Scotland. The result was “townships”. These powerful lairds controlled what the residents might do as an occupation, such as change from arable to sheep farming. The views were quite sad really with evidence of poverty and lack of amenities. How we crammed in five speakers and a break for tea or coffee and ended by nine o’clock was some sort of miracle. All the speakers were given the traditional round of applause by way of thanks.
THE NORTHWEST ALKALI INDUSTRY TO 1926 8th January 2024 by Bob Roach via Zoom
As well as being an MIH member, Bob is Chairman of the Friends of the Catalyst Museum. We had a fascinating and well-illustrated talk. I think some of us had to dig deeply into the recesses of our memories to recall some of the chemical symbols used, in my case, from our school days, such as CaCo3 and Hg – which, of course, was mercury.
I was late joining the meeting due to my “Horizon” computer terminal not working, so I joined towards the end of the Le Blanc story. Le Blanc is still one of the processes for making one of the alkalis, we learned that the family of “Le Blanc” came to a sad ending at the end by trading during the American Civil War with “the wrong side”. (A very Merseyside problem). However, the company got sold on.
Le Blanc later had a factory in St Helens, and there were other chemical firms such as Muspratts, Gossages, Mond and Brunner all making chemical products in the area. We learned there were lots of German scientists in some of these companies, Germans had the lead on the British in many aspects of the chemical industry in this country.
Sadly, many workers were killed or injured in this industry. Ernest Solvay, a Belgian, found a special way of making ammonia and made an agreement with Brunner and Mond to make it. It is still made in the area, but the present company is Tata. One interesting fact, at one time a vast amount of mercury was used in one of the chemical processes, the problem arose as to what to do with it.
As well as being an MIH member, Bob is Chairman of the Friends of the Catalyst Museum. We had a fascinating and well-illustrated talk. I think some of us had to dig deeply into the recesses of our memories to recall some of the chemical symbols used, in my case, from our school days, such as CaCo3 and Hg – which, of course, was mercury.
I was late joining the meeting due to my “Horizon” computer terminal not working, so I joined towards the end of the Le Blanc story. Le Blanc is still one of the processes for making one of the alkalis, we learned that the family of “Le Blanc” came to a sad ending at the end by trading during the American Civil War with “the wrong side”. (A very Merseyside problem). However, the company got sold on.
Le Blanc later had a factory in St Helens, and there were other chemical firms such as Muspratts, Gossages, Mond and Brunner all making chemical products in the area. We learned there were lots of German scientists in some of these companies, Germans had the lead on the British in many aspects of the chemical industry in this country.
Sadly, many workers were killed or injured in this industry. Ernest Solvay, a Belgian, found a special way of making ammonia and made an agreement with Brunner and Mond to make it. It is still made in the area, but the present company is Tata. One interesting fact, at one time a vast amount of mercury was used in one of the chemical processes, the problem arose as to what to do with it.
MARITME INFRASTUCTURE OF THE PORT OF HAYLE, CORNWALL - 13th November 2023 by John Luxton
A smaller audience than usual attended John’s pictorial tour of the Port of Hayle. showing the growth and then decline of the port (a big chunk of it is now an ASDA Supermarket).
We learned about Harveys of Hayle, the great engineers, in the true sense of the word “engine”. The Harveys were connected by marriage to the great Trevithick! How could a firm like that not be successful. Harveys built those magnificent pumping engines used at one time on the Severn Tunnel Railway.
The area of the dock used for wood importing (pit props, sleepers, dock gates etc. is still a sort of timber yard! The firm Jewson run it now, still selling timber. I wonder if they know how long building materials have been traded on that very site? We’ve seen scoria bricks in St Helens and Middlesbrough (slag moulded into blocks). Well, they cropped up at Hayle, what did we see lining the nearby canal - scoria bricks. We saw pictures of shunting by horse in the early 60’s.
John not only presented now and then images but also, in some cases, a series of images in time. John has been recording Hayle over many years.
The website run by Historic England aerial views showed us some interesting old views of Hayle. At the end of the lecture there was the usual vote of thanks and clapping. Well done, John.
A smaller audience than usual attended John’s pictorial tour of the Port of Hayle. showing the growth and then decline of the port (a big chunk of it is now an ASDA Supermarket).
We learned about Harveys of Hayle, the great engineers, in the true sense of the word “engine”. The Harveys were connected by marriage to the great Trevithick! How could a firm like that not be successful. Harveys built those magnificent pumping engines used at one time on the Severn Tunnel Railway.
The area of the dock used for wood importing (pit props, sleepers, dock gates etc. is still a sort of timber yard! The firm Jewson run it now, still selling timber. I wonder if they know how long building materials have been traded on that very site? We’ve seen scoria bricks in St Helens and Middlesbrough (slag moulded into blocks). Well, they cropped up at Hayle, what did we see lining the nearby canal - scoria bricks. We saw pictures of shunting by horse in the early 60’s.
John not only presented now and then images but also, in some cases, a series of images in time. John has been recording Hayle over many years.
The website run by Historic England aerial views showed us some interesting old views of Hayle. At the end of the lecture there was the usual vote of thanks and clapping. Well done, John.
ORDSALL DYE WORKS - 9th OCTOBER by Mark Adams via Zoom
This meeting should have been held at FMH, but due to the Labour Party Conference taking over the rooms, we moved it to Zoom, where it was nice to see a turnout of more than 30 members.
Mark’s subject was “Excavations at J. and J.M. Worrall’s Ordsall Dye Works”. There were lots of pictures, plans and maps for us to closely scrutinise and we soon learned that the company boasted that they were at one time the biggest dyers of velvet in the world. But by the early 60’s they were struggling, and the firm collapsed in 1964. The area is now unrecognisable, but Mark’s excavation, in March this year, shed some light on the past….
Through desk-top research Mark found that the earliest mention of the company was in 1768 in “Dyer’s Lane”. We saw lots of evidence including a lovely fire insurance map. The dye works was next to the River Irwell, I wonder what got dumped in the river? It also became a print works in addition to the dye works.
Remarkably, Mark had found the company Minute Book, which was a rich source of information. Mark tallied up old drawings with areas of his excavation, all very revealing and interesting. Where the factory steam engine had stood cutouts in the wall and marks on the ground enabled estimates to be made of the flywheel size and the diameter of the piston. Power of the engine was estimated at 40 HP.
The Salford Improvement Act of 1862 banned further building of back-to-back houses, but the company continued building them for their workers. They still existed and continued to be lived in right into the twentieth century. In many cases the sewer pipes for these old houses can still be seen, sometimes for communal toilet blocks. One could not afford to be too shy about going about one’s business in those times!
Mark answered questions from the floor, and we gave him a vote of thanks with some invisible clapping. It was all too soon over, we waved to each other, and our pictures gradually went off the screen.
This meeting should have been held at FMH, but due to the Labour Party Conference taking over the rooms, we moved it to Zoom, where it was nice to see a turnout of more than 30 members.
Mark’s subject was “Excavations at J. and J.M. Worrall’s Ordsall Dye Works”. There were lots of pictures, plans and maps for us to closely scrutinise and we soon learned that the company boasted that they were at one time the biggest dyers of velvet in the world. But by the early 60’s they were struggling, and the firm collapsed in 1964. The area is now unrecognisable, but Mark’s excavation, in March this year, shed some light on the past….
Through desk-top research Mark found that the earliest mention of the company was in 1768 in “Dyer’s Lane”. We saw lots of evidence including a lovely fire insurance map. The dye works was next to the River Irwell, I wonder what got dumped in the river? It also became a print works in addition to the dye works.
Remarkably, Mark had found the company Minute Book, which was a rich source of information. Mark tallied up old drawings with areas of his excavation, all very revealing and interesting. Where the factory steam engine had stood cutouts in the wall and marks on the ground enabled estimates to be made of the flywheel size and the diameter of the piston. Power of the engine was estimated at 40 HP.
The Salford Improvement Act of 1862 banned further building of back-to-back houses, but the company continued building them for their workers. They still existed and continued to be lived in right into the twentieth century. In many cases the sewer pipes for these old houses can still be seen, sometimes for communal toilet blocks. One could not afford to be too shy about going about one’s business in those times!
Mark answered questions from the floor, and we gave him a vote of thanks with some invisible clapping. It was all too soon over, we waved to each other, and our pictures gradually went off the screen.