Borrow's Bridge and Associated Hand-cranked Crane, Bridgewater Canal, Norton, Runcorn, Halton

Summary

Canal Bridge, of about 1770, by James Brindley, for the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal, and an associated hand-cranked crane of late-C19 to early-C20 date.

Description

Canal Bridge, of about 1770, by James Brindley, for the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal, and an associated hand-cranked crane of late-C19 to early-C20 date.

MATERIALS: red brick in English Garden Wall bond, with ashlar gritstone dressings.

PLAN: rectangular-plan, single-span accommodation bridge with curved splayed abutments and wing walls.

DESCRIPTION: a single-span, segmental bridge arch with brick soffit and voussoirs, beneath a projecting ashlar sandstone band that springs from ashlar skew back stones, set within the splayed abutments. The west approach has a coursed sandstone retaining wall on its northern side, protected by a galvanised tube handrail supported by timber posts. The north parapet wall has flush gritstone coping stones with chamfered edges that step down over the curved wing walls to either side. A benchmark has been inscribed into a coping stone towards the western end of the north parapet. Both parapets show evidence of re-building with extensive patching in different types of brick. However, both retain their original design appearance with the exceptions of the stepped down ends of the south parapet, which have been replaced in brick. Canted brick buttressing is evident to the interior face of the eastern ends of the north parapet wall, where the road surface falls steeply away. The canal banks beneath the bridge have gritstone block retaining walls that are inclined and canted back to either side of the abutments. Secondary brickwork in-fills the former timber roller recesses in the corners of the east abutment. A late-C20 aluminium rectangular name plate is attached to the ashlar band of the west arch, which reads: BORROWS BRIDGE in green raised lettering, on a cream coloured ground.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a level surface, formed against the north-west retaining wall, forms a storage area and working platform for the handling of stop planks, served by a hand-cranked crane. The crane is mounted onto a cast-iron holdfast bed by a central pivot post that supports moulded framed and panelled side plates, with external cog wheels, a cable drum, and a tubular jib that terminates in a pulley wheel. Slots to accept the stop planks exist in the retaining walls to either side of the canal on the northern side of the bridge.

History

The Bridgewater Canal received Royal Assent on 23 March 1759 and was the forerunner of all modern canals in that it followed a route independent of all existing natural watercourses. It was built by Francis Egerton, third Duke of Bridgewater, to enable coal from his mines at Worsley to be transported to Manchester and sold cheaply. His engineers were James Brindley and John Gilbert and the first section of the canal was opened on 17 July 1761. In 1762 the Duke received sanction to extend his canal to the Liverpool tideway at Runcorn; this was later amended to connect with the new Trent and Mersey Canal at Preston Brook. After a great deal of opposition from Sir Richard Brooke of Norton Priory, the route between Preston Brook and Runcorn was fully opened in 1776, four years after the death of James Brindley. In 1872 the newly formed Bridgewater Navigation Company purchased the canal for £1.12 million, and they in turn sold it to the Manchester Ship Canal Company in 1885.

The construction of the canal divided the landscape in a way that had not been seen before, proving to be an obstacle to movement within pre-existing land holdings and farms. Consequently, accommodation bridges had to be built to permit the movement of goods and livestock from one side to the other. Borrow's Bridge was such a bridge; it was completed in about 1770 to a design by James Brindley, to carry a pre-existing road called Red Brow Lane, linking the villages of Norton to the west of the canal to Daresbury, to the east. It was originally called Borrow’s Bridge, but sometime later became known as Bridge No 69, conforming to what had become the standard practice elsewhere of the numeric numbering of canal bridges. Although built to the same basic design, all the accommodation bridges along the Bridgewater Canal deviate slightly in appearance from one and other dependent upon topography, the angle of approach of roads, and various historic repairs. There are several Grade II-listed accommodation bridges built to a similar design along the length of the canal, examples include: George Gleave's Bridge, Moore Bridge, Acton Grange Bridge and Thomason's Bridge.

The canal was narrowed at each bridge to reduce the cost and time spent on construction. Around the end of the C19 some of the narrowed sections proved ideal locations to place cranes to lift stop planks, used to drop across the canal to hold back water, while sections of the canal were drained for repair. This arrangement can be found on the north-western side of Borrow's Bridge, along with a platform for the storage of the stop planks and a hand-cranked crane for lifting the planks in and out of place; like similar examples at Moorefield Bridge and Agden Bridge, further along the canal to the north-east. It is unclear when the crane was installed, but map evidence indicates that it was sometime between 1897 and 1908. During the Second World War the Bridgewater Canal was a major alternative transport link between Manchester and Runcorn, and hence to the Liverpool Docks. Consequently, the cranes gained a vital strategic role to prevent the canal from being drained along its whole length by any bomb damage. The crane remains an operational piece of equipment that protects the local area from flooding in the event of a breach of the canal.

Francis Egerton, the third Duke of Bridgewater (1736–1803) was an aristocratic entrepreneur with extensive estates, who had the vision, wealth and connections to build the Bridgewater Canal, England’s first arterial canal. James Brindley (1716-1772) is considered to be the pioneering engineer of the English canal system, having been the principal engineer on numerous canals, including the Trent and Mersey Canal, the Oxford Canal, and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

Reasons for Listing

Borrow’s Bridge, about 1770 by James Brindley, and an associated hand-cranked crane, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* it dates from a period when most canal buildings surviving in anything like their original form, are likely to be listed;

* the bridge is largely unaltered and retains significant original fabric;

* it is an early example of an accommodation bridge, an innovative form of structure at the time of its construction;

* the associated hand-cranked crane adds interest to the bridge, with a clear spatial and functional relationship between the two.

Historic interest:
* an integral part of the historically significant and innovative Bridgewater Canal, built and designed by James Brindley for Francis Egerton, the third Duke of Bridgewater;

* James Brindley is recognised as being the pre-eminent pioneering canal engineer of the C18.

Group value:
* the bridge shares spatial and historic group value with several listed bridges and aqueducts along the length of the canal.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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