Barton Aqueduct

Engineer              James Brindley

When the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater received parliamentary approval to his proposed canal it was the intended to follow the 85 foot contour westwards to Salford and eastwards to Hollins. However, the scheme depended upon agreement over navigation rights with the Mersey & Irwell Navigation Company. At some stage during the year, when it became apparent that agreement could not be reached, the Duke and his agent, John Gilbert determined to break this monopoly of the old navigation by taking their new canal directly to Manchester and building a cross country canal to the Mersey estuary. This new undertaking, far greater and more costly than originally proposed, required a further Act of Parliament.

The new scheme necessitated a crossing of the River Irwell, an engineering feat considered impossible by The Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company. However, during his Grand Tour, the Duke had seen aqueducts capable of carrying barges and this is what he instructed Brindley to provide at Barton. Over a mile of the canal had already been completed and it was therefore at Monton that it deviated from the original line towards the Irwell. Three quarters of a mile of earth embankments led the canal to massive masonry retaining walls some 250 feet in length and 36 feet apart The aqueduct too was built of stone, its arches rising 39 feet above the Irwell, giving sufficient headroom for the masts of Mersey flats. On 17 July 1761 the first boatload of coal was carried over the aqueduct

The aqueduct was demolished at the end of the nineteenth century to allow construction of the Manchester Ship Canal. However, the northern abutments remain.

See also Barton Swing Aqueduct, Manchester Ship Canal