Report from our Talks Programme
by Peter Keen

The Hollinwood Branch: by Martin Clark

The February meeting of the Society was addressed by Martin Clark of the Hollinwood Canal Society. He began with the facts and figures for his waterway. The Hollinwood Canal is a branch off the Ashton Canal from Droylesden, the east of Manchester, to Hollinwood. Although only six miles long the canal passes through a hilly area and therefore needs the eight locks and four aqueducts which were complete by the late 1700s. At Daisy Nook the Fairbottom Branch led off westwards to Bardsley. A link westwards to the Rochdale Canal was proposed but never built. The canals served the collieries of the area, taking their output to the industries and hearths of Manchester. Still a working canal between the wars, by the 1950s it had become un-navigable, being officially abandoned in 1961.

The Canal Society aims to restore the waterway within the Daisy Nook Country Park and to construct a new link to the Rochdale Canal to form a new boating ring.

As with most canals the Hollinwood has suffered infilling, but fortunately, with one exception, nothing has been built on its course, or if it has there is an alternative route available and many of the original bridges survive. Most lock chambers remain, as do the aqueducts although some of these are in need of attention. The largest engineering problems in more ways than one will be the construction of two new aqueducts across the Motorway and a replacement across the railway line.

Martin then commenced a run through of the major features of the Hollinwood Branch, beginning at Fairfield Junction with the Ashton Canal . Here a large development is planned with dwellings, a hotel and a marina. As a result of the Society's canvassing to preserve the line of the canal, one of the buildings is designed to straddle the canal to allow boats to pass through.

The most expensive part of the restoration came next. Progress along the canal's course reveals simple in-filling until a housing estate is reached at which point six bungalows have been built along the filled-in canal bed with no alternative route available because of other development. Clearly the only way through here will be to buy the properties and demolish them to allow the canal to be opened up again.

What was once a farm entrance accessed by a wooden swing bridge is now a factory with a metalled road crossing the site of the bridge. It is hoped that a swing bridge can reinstated here since access is not required round the clock.

Next comes the railway line, previously crossed via a stone aqueduct, there is now a pedestrian footbridge which will of course need to be replaced to allow the canal across the lines.

The next road bridge is intact and at first looks to be in no need of attention. Not that is until the observer sees people ducking their heads when trying to walk beneath the arch. The problem is of course subsidence. In any mining area this can be a problem, and so here a perfectly useable bridge will have to be demolished and rebuilt to allow the necessary headroom.

The M60 is a recent construction which sliced straight across a loop of the canal. Again pedestrian access has been preserved but two new aqueducts or sump locks will be needed for the canal to function, water level and road level being very close.

The popular Daisy Nook Visitors' Centre and its car park are built across the course of the canal but plans are in preparation to relocate these facilities elsewhere so the canal can be opened up again with minimum effort.

Subsidence played its part in the next feature where once the canal passed through a tunnel. The damage to the tunnel roof was so severe that only the opening out of the tunnel into a cutting could solve the problem. A bridge was installed to carry the original road at sufficient height to allow navigation along the canal (left).

Perhaps the most interesting section of the canal comes next. Having passed through the cutting and bridge the canal crosses over a stone aqueduct spanning the River Medlock at a height of 80 feet before it reaches its first lock . This is numbered 19 rather than 1 since it is the 19th along the Ashton Canal. (what number is the next lock on the main line?) After a short distance and a right-angled turn the canal ascends a set of four staircase locks (Pictured over) to meet the junction with the Fairbottom Branch with a pumping station on the lock side. Also present is an overflow channel into the nearby stream. Lock 19 was "improved" some years ago when the Country park was first opened but will need further work on it to restore it to working condition.

Some scrub bashing has already taken place in the area around the locks and aqueduct with the full co-operation of the Ranger Service, but there remains much to be done. The pump house would be an excellent restoration project but is very remote and would need any materials to be carried along the tow path, no roads or tracks being present. This might work to the Society's advantage since when the pumping engine was demolished the transporting away of the materials, especially the huge cross beam, would have been difficult and there is the possibility that they were dumped into the adjacent top lock, coincidentally the only lock on the flight which has been filled in.

Shortly after another aqueduct , which has been blocked off, the canal widens into a lake, known as Crime Lake. This is nothing to do with local lawlessness but simply the name of the area. The canal was supposed to cross the valley on an embankment but a culvert collapsed and the water backed up to flood it. (An iron trough was installed to carry the canal and this is thought to be one of the oldest in the country to survive) Two cottages were flooded and the canal company had to buy them from their owners. The lake became a popular local leisure site with an elaborate half timbered boat house, a steam launch and rowing boats and hoards of visitors, a bit like our own Carr Mill Dam. The artist Lowry came here to paint a scene of great activity (left). However increased mobility sent people further afield for their entertainment and the lake is now a quiet part of the County Park.

Further sections of the canal survive with either room for diversions or the intention to keep the canal as part of future development. The local council plans to restore part of the canal within a Business park, first to a shallow depth and later to full navigable depth.

At Hollinwood the canal originally climbed to its terminus via another flight of four locks but the Society can see no purpose in restoring these to a short dead end of canal. Instead the target is a new link westwards to the Rochdale Canal forming a new ring, many years after such a route was originally planned.

The Fairbottom Branch is still in water but its banks were not stone lined so some bank slumping has occurred which will have to be addressed. The terminal basin remains and it is hoped to introduce some interpretation to explain the area's importance during its mining days. The old tramway between pit and canal could be restored with examples of the pit tubs on display.

The Society has only been in existence for a few years but has already made useful contacts with other societies so its members will be able to build upon the vast amount of knowledge and expertise which they have accumulated. WRG has already been active along the branch, supporting the Society volunteers and more visits are planned. SCARS thanked Martin for his presentation and wished the Hollinwood Canal Society every success in the future.

Picture: Martin Clark, from the Society's website: www.penninewaterways.co.uk/ashton/hollinwood

The Panama Canal: by Audrey & David Smith

Audrey and David Smith are no strangers to SCARS, having given presentations on previous occasions. Their recent visit took the form of a discourse on their cruising holiday, this time not by their usual narrow boat but by cruise liner.

Beginning at Buenos Aries their route lay southwards  to the Falkland Islands, round Cape Horn, past the fjorded coast of Chile after which they left the ship for a trip to the fabulous Machu Pichu, although here Audrey was not at her happiest with the high altitude and precipitous slopes.  Regaining the ship the voyage continued northwards, to pass through the Panama Canal to Jamaica, the Bahamas, Bermuda (triangle not effective) and across the Atlantic to Barcelona where they caught the plane home.

To concentrate on the canal section of the trip, they entered the Panama Canal from the Pacific Ocean at the City of Panama and sailed north westwards through the Isthmus of Panama to reach the Atlantic at Colon.

The Canal took many years to build under the most atrocious of conditions, Whilst the Pacific end lay in a fairly comfortable climate, the Atlantic end lay in tropical rain forests which, although ensuring a reliable water supply for the canal,  also brought all manner of  diseases, insects and hostile wildlife. The weather brought frequent delays, the torrential downpours would cause flooding and destruction of the workings and trigger off huge landslides which necessitated  some sections being dug twice.

The name most associated with the canal was Ferdinand de Lesseps who, although not its engineer, was a very able organiser, public relations man and politician who was able to promote the necessary funding to build the canal. He already had the Suez Canal to his credit and fully expected to repeat his success.  Even he however was unable to protect his work force from malaria and yellow fever and men died in their thousands. Having supervised the canal from 1881 to 1889 de Lesseps finally admitted defeat and the building of the canal was taken over by the USA. Once the malaria-carrying mosquito had been eliminated by spraying, the building work could go ahead with fewer casualties and the canal was opened for business in 1914.

Although de Lesseps had envisaged a sea-level canal like the Suez, this was impossible in Panama where the mountainous central ridge needed 3 locks building on either side, despite the removal of massive quantity of material to form the deep Gaillard Cut, site of many a landslide.

The locks are all doubled, i.e. twinned side by side but rather than having a two way system, ships can use either of the locks according to a pre-arranged order. Bookings are done many months in advance and the cruise liners take precedence. The Smiths always seemed to gain a good vantage point for their photographs and their entry into the first lock at Miraflores was spectacular. No ships are permitted to negotiate the locks under their own steam, but must be hauled through by a three pairs of mules. These are not the four legged variety but tough, powerful locomotives, attached to the ships fore and aft and amidships to have complete control. The mules run on rails along the lock-side but their massive strength is transmitted via the rack and pinion system which serves to keep them on the rails rather than being pulled into the water. A team of handlers comes aboard every ship to pilot them through the canal, hauling lines and fending of where necessary. Mules and crew were well illustrated on screen.

The statistics are impressive. The locks are 1000feet long by 110 feet wide and can accommodate the "Panamax", the maximum sized ship of length 965 feet and width 106 feet.  One lock movement uses 52M gallons of water so it is as well that there is a plentiful supply up in the mountains. In the mid 1990s there were 14,000 transits of the canal carrying 17M tonnes of cargo. The highest toll paid was $141,344 for a cruise liner whilst the lowest was 36 cents for a swimmer. It takes between 8 and 10 hours to complete a passage though the canal. Each lock gate weighs 750 tonnes, how about that British Waterways?

Beyond Miraflores Locks, (two rises), lies Miraflores Lake a natural lake which fortuitously lay along the canal's course. The Smiths' ship, the Marco Polo, followed a much larger cargo vessel for this early part of the passage, but passed a large variety of other craft en route including oil tankers, container ships, steam ships and sailing ships. Soon the lake gave way to another section of canal and the final lock to reach the summit level at Pedro Miguel, this being a single rise.    By now the mountains had closed in on either side and the atmosphere was becoming hot and damp. A deep cutting known as Gaillard Cut was hewn through the central ridge with great difficulty, taking many years to construct, but it saved having to build more locks. The water level was by now the same as Lake Gatun, the equivalent of our summit level but in fact an immense lake forming more than half of the canal's course. Again a natural lake, it has been dammed to increase its depth and the shipping channels are being constantly dredged to maintain navigable depth. With careful navigation to avoid the numerous small islands it was possible for smaller ships making greater speed to overtake the larger, slower ones but only with the agreement of the canal pilots.

Across the lake lies Gatun town and the set of three locks of the same name, descending to the last section of true canal which eventually leads into a huge lagoon at Christobal and soon after into the Atlantic Ocean where the journey would continue to other exotic locations.

This was a truly great opportunity for Audrey and David and SCARS members were most fortunate in being able to share their experiences. As usual, a follow up question session showed the high level of interest in what had been a fascinating presentation. The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the speakers.

Live action on the Panama Canal may be seen at: www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
The picture, above, of a cruise ship passing a cargo vessel in a lock on the Canal is to be found at www.nab.co.jp/~kasugahi/hoshi-jyouhou/2005nisshoku/main/Panama%20canal%20022sp.JPG

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