Clifton Aqueduct, Pendlebury
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Visit websiteThe Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal ran from Salford to Prestolee, near Little Lever, from where one arm ran to Bolton and another to Bury. The 15 miles of canal had 17 locks, including 4 staircases of two or three locks together. It connected to the River Irwell in Manchester. The canal was commissioned in 1791 by local landowners and businessmen and built between 1791 and 1808, during the Golden Age of canal building, at a cost of £127,700. Originally designed for narrow gauge boats, the canal was altered during its construction into a broad gauge canal to allow an ultimately unrealised connection with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.
The canal company was later converted into a railway company and built a railway line close to the canal's path, which required modifications to the Salford arm of the canal. The majority of the freight carried was coal from local collieries but, as the mines reached the end of their working lives, sections of the canal fell into disuse and disrepair and it was officially abandoned in 1961. In 1987, a society was formed with the aim of restoring the canal for leisure use and, in 2006, restoration began in the area around the junction with the River Irwell in Salford.
The canal was built with six aqueducts. Two out of the three major aqueducts are still standing - at Clifton and Prestolee. The three spans of the Clifton Aqueduct carried the canal across the River Irwell. At the western end of the aqueduct the canal has its junction with the short Fletcher's Canal built to serve the Wet Earth Colliery at Clifton.
The construction is of dressed stone with brick arches. Three segmental arches with keystones rest on triangular-ended cutwaters. Above the cutwaters are flat Pilasters. A C20 brick parapet remains on the eastern side. There is a towpath on each side, and the aqueduct contains grooves for stop planks to be inserted, to drain the canal. The aqueduct was engineered by Charles Roberts and John Nightingale.
By Road: From Clifton Railway Station take a turning to the left off Northern Avenue and walk northward. Alternatively for the more adventurous it is at the south west end of Phillips Park. It is not far from the Clifton Railway Viaduct. (Clifton Railway Station, formerly Clifton Junction was a seen of a pitched battle between rival railway company employees in the 19th century).
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