Store Street Aqueduct, Manchester
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Visit websiteThe Ashton Canal leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for six miles (10 km) and 18 locks, passing through Ancoats, Holt Town, Bradford-with-Beswick, Clayton, Openshaw, Droylsden, Fairfield and Audenshaw to make a head-on junction with the Huddersfield Narrow Canal (formerly the Huddersfield Canal) at Whitelands Basin in the centre of Ashton-under-Lyne.
The Store Street Aqueduct in Manchester, England was built in 1798 by Benjamin Outram on the Ashton Canal. A Grade II* listed building, it is built on a skew of 45 degrees across the highway, and is believed to be the first major aqueduct of its kind in Great Britain and the oldest still in use today.
Generally, where a canal (or later a railway) crossed a road, or vice versa, the road would be diverted to cross at right angles. It had not always been acceptable but attempts to build masonry arch bridges at an angle, or "skew" of greater than about 15 degrees, had proved unsatisfactory.
The method up to that time had been to build the voussoir arch with the stone course work parallel to the abutments. This transmitted the load outward from the crown in a straight line to the foundations, parallel to the faces of the arch. If a skew was attempted, it threw the lines of force outside the abutments, leading to weakness in the structure.
William Chapman had partially solved the problem in 1787 when building bridges for the Kildare Canal, the first being the Finlay Bridge near Naas. The Kildare was part of the Grand Canal Company, for William Jessop had been the engineer. Jessop would no doubt have discussed it with Outram, his partner, and he experimented with the idea on the Rochdale Canal. Examples are Gorrell's Lane and March Barn road bridges, though it is possible that they were built later.
The method used was to build timber falsework parallel to the proposed arches. Planks were laid on the falsework parallel to the abutments. The position of the courses at the crown were marked out, then those across the remainder of the arch.
Although the aqueduct still exists, and is structurally sound, years of neglect led to water leakage through the joints, and the spiral construction can no longer be seen, the surface of the intrados having been rendered.
Later railway engineers improved on the system, producing what became known as helicoidal construction that became the norm in English skew bridge building. An exact solution to the problem was determined in the form of the French, or orthogonal, design. However this was complicated and expensive to build.
When William Jessop was approached to design and build the Cromford Canal he found an able assistant in the 24 year-old Benjamin Outram. This was the beginning of the ironworks, 'Benjamin Outram & Company' which began trading in 1790. The following year William Jessop and John Wright, a Nottingham banker, also became partners. Outram became the leading advocate in the construction of tramways using L-section rails, which along with the wagons were manufactured at his ironworks. His first tramway was a line slightly over 1 mile (1.6 km) in length, built to carry limestone from quarries at Crich to Bullbridge Wharf on the Cromford Canal, for use by his works.
In 1792 he became engineer for the Nottingham Canal and in 1793 the Derby Canal, working in the meantime on the Nutbrook Canal.
He is perhaps best known for the 13 m (44 ft.) long single-span Holmes Aqueduct on the Derby Canal. It opened in February 1796 and was one of the first cast-iron aqueducts. It was demolished in 1971.
Outram was the consulting engineer for the construction of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which included the pioneering Standedge Canal Tunnel.
In 1794 he was the engineer for the Peak Forest Canal, which included the Marple Aqueduct.(see entry) The climb from Bugsworth was negotiated by the 6 miles (9.7 km) Peak Forest Tramway. Stodhart Tunnel on this tramway is believed to be the first railway tunnel in Derbyshire.
In 1796 he reported on the extra funds needed to complete construction of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal.
In 1798, he was retained to complete the final section of the Ashton Canal which included the Store Street Aqueduct,
By Road: In central Manchester, just north of Piccadilly Station. Store Street runs off the A665.
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