This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Anderton Boat Lift and I would like nothing more than to see this impressive piece of engineering fully restored and back working.
Designed by civil engineer Edwin Clark and dubbed the Cathedral of the Canals, the structure transfers boats and barges between the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal.
It was the first commercial boat lift in the world, and it is a huge part of our country’s industrial heritage. The Lift links the two waterways and ended the need for boaters to make long detour and on average transported 3,000 boats each year.
It was operational for more than 100 years before corrosion forced it to close in the 1980s. Thankfully in 2002 after a multi-million pound restoration project, it re-opened but it has been out of action since summer 2022.
Repair works were due to begin in the autumn but the Canal and Rivers Trust (C&RT) said spiralling costs had forced their hand, and the project has had to be paused.
I’ve enjoyed visiting the site many times, but just weeks ago when I was there, I was assured that C&RT, which operates the Lift, are in talks with various organisations to try and secure the needed funding. I know they are doing everything they can to make this happen. This, in my opinion, is vital.
We need to get the Lift working again so generations to come can come to see it for themselves and be proud of the engineering feat we have on our doorstep.
I have been lucky enough to experience it, and I want that for others too as looking at it is one thing but seeing it in operation or being on a boat being lifted from one waterway to another, is quite simply – physics in action.
The Anderton Boat Lift and Visitor Centre is a huge tourist attraction and boasts not only educational facilities for schools and community groups as well as visitors, but a beautiful wildlife haven with bats, swans, moorhens, bug hotels and much more!
We have many generous big businesses and philanthropists across the region, and I hope those who can, will donate to the cause and help the C&RT secure the additional money to deliver the restoration project.
It is one of only two working boat lifts in the UK, the other is the Falkirk, Scotland. We must do everything we can to get it back up and running.