Lock on the Manchester Ship Canal

Thursday
A quiet day today. I stayed home in the morning, packing, while Roger and his Dad went to pick up his parents new flat-screen TV and stand with built in speakers. Once they got home, it took them a while to assemble it all, so it was mid afternoon before we got out for a relatively local walk along the Manchester Ship Canal. The Manchester Ship Canal is a 36-mile long river navigation, designed to give the city of Manchester direct access to the sea. It was built between 1887 and 1894, and in its day was the largest navigation canal in the world. It enabled the Port of Manchester to become Britain's third busiest port, despite being about 40 miles inland. The canal generally follows the original route of the rivers Mersey and Irwell, and along its course uses several sets of locks. The canal is able to accommodate a range of vessels, from coastal ships to inter-continental cargo liners, but it is not large enough for many modern vessels. The canal is no longer considered to be an important shipping route, but it still carries about 6 million tons of freight each year. It is now operated under private ownership. When we got to the locks, we were lucky enough to see a ship just entering the lock. Roger's Dad walks there fairly regularly, but has never seen a ship going through.