1: October 26th 2000: The Anderton Lift by BW’s Helen Dixon

The restoration of the Anderton Lift has been an on-going project for many years now with periods of progress followed by periods of inactivity as the search for sufficient funding has continued. At last, as a result of the new attitude of the Government and British Waterways, and the formation of the Waterways Trust the project is going ahead.
The Society was fortunate in having British Waterways Project Engineer Helen Dixon to address us. After briefly running through the milestones in the Lift’s past, Helen explained the more recent history of the structure before going on to the engineering involved in the restoration.
The original hydraulic operation of the twin caissons, which carried the boats between the canal and the river, functioned well for many years, but the chemical composition of the water inevitably took its toll and they were removed. They were replaced with a series of weights slung over pulleys arranged on the top of the lift’s girder frame, counterbalancing the weight of the caissons, and a small engine to initiate their movement. These pulleys became part of the scenery and gave the lift decades of service. However, the gradual wastage of the thickness of the metal caused deterioration until the stage was reached when the supporting framework was no longer safe to use. It became inadequate to support even the load imposed by the structure itself, let alone caissons of water.
At that stage the pulley wheels were removed and set out on the river bank where they were gradually overgrown by vegetation, becoming it seemed more rusty by the week. This was a period during which there was no discernible progress since the restoration society’s funding had been exhausted.
Now however all is changed. Funding is available, The Waterways Trust has stepped in and restoration is going full steam ahead. The first stage was the complete dismantling of the lift into its component parts. This was a complicated logistical exercise. Concrete pads had to be built on deep piles to take the weight of the crane needed to handle some very large lumps of metal. All parts then underwent rigorous inspection before being restored or replaced then returned to the site for the eventual rebuild, in the new year.
The usual story when an item of our waterway heritage is removed is the addition of a vacant space in the landscape. Here however, thanks to the original efforts of the Anderton Lift Restoration Society, the new Waterways Trust and British Waterways, this will not happen - the Lift will be back in use, soon. Our thanks to Helen for an excellent presentation and our best wishes on her recent marriage.

Our November Society meeting saw yet another success story as Frank Smith came along to tell us about the recent progress of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.
Having begun in 1974, the Huddersfield Canal Restoration Society has a few more years under its belt than the Sankey, but our aims are the same: the restoration of our respective waterways to navigational standard.
Benjamin Outram began building the canal in 1794 from the Ashton Canal near Dukinfield across the Pennines to link up with the Huddersfield Broad Canal at Huddersfield. Unfortunately Outram died in 1805 before completion so Telford was brought in to finish the project. There were 74 locks, numerous other earthworks and a remarkable tunnel, the Standedge, opened in 1811, which holds a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest, deepest and longest canal tunnel in England.
In the mid-1800s the railway came along and traffic declined. In common with the other trans-Pennine waterways boat movement became restricted to one side or the other of the hills, and the last commercial traffic was in 1921 with official abandonment in 1944.
As the canal was classified as a remainder waterway, it was not initially filled-in, as happened to many others, but this did not prevent the lowering of bridges, and the cascading or in-filling of lock chambers. Eventually building took place across its channel in towns on both sides of the Pennines.
Enter the Restoration Society, which began clearance work on a couple of locks and a short stretch of canal. Whilst the volunteers were very willing they had neither the time or capacity to carry out the whole restoration. When the former Greater Manchester County Council was disbanded, however, the Society received a substantial grant with which they set up the Huddersfield Canal Restoration Company. This used government work schemes and contracted out projects along the canal, forging links with both local authorities and specialised contractors which have served them well over the years.
By 1997 most viable projects had been completed so the Company was disbanded. There remained such obstacles as the Standedge Tunnel, road crossings such as that at Dobcross and extensive infilling in the town centre of Stalybridge where business premises had been built and had been operative for many years. All such projects required specialised expertise, complicated negotiations with owners/ leaseholders/local people/town councils/county authorities etc. and all required the investment of considerable amounts of capital which were beyond the capabilities of the Restoration Company.
The Waterways Trust and British Waterways have supplied the necessary expertise and funding and work has been progressing well since 1999 to the extent that eventual re-opening is scheduled for the early part of 2001. Standedge Tunnel has been desilted, the collapses removed and all walls stabilised with either new brick or quick-drying spray-on concrete covering steel mesh bolted into the walls and roof. The bridge below the road at Dobcross has been rebuilt, and new access provided. The largest obstacle was the town centre in Stalybridge. This has seen the reinstatement of the canal channel after buildings have been demolished, streets temporarily re-routed, the bus station moved, a new covered channel being constructed through the basement of industrial premises and a new Asda store being built to straddle the canal’s course.
Following restoration the Huddersfield Canal Society (note the missing “Restoration”) will still have a part to play in the canal’s future. It will act as a co-ordinating body for the continuing monitoring and improvement of the canal corridor. It will lease and staff the Warehouse Heritage Centre until British Waterways require its return. It will run a trip boat at the eastern end of the tunnel and will continue its policy of encouraging the youth of today to contribute to the protection and promotion of our waterway heritage.
We are grateful to Frank for sharing his enthusiasm and obvious commitment with us. Many restorations have gone through a similar sequence of events, making progress, waiting for funds, a bit more progress and so on, so it is good to see one which has been able to go all the way to full restoration. SCARS should take heart - the Huddersfield Society has taken 25 years to achieve its aim, we have only been active since 1985 so there’s a few more years to go yet before we can expect to see the Sankey again open to navigation. (Visit their website: http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk)