Boat lifts

They were, and indeed still are needed when our canals undergo severe changes in level. One boat lift is cheaper to build and maintain than several locks and the transit time through a lift is far faster than the passage through locks. Most importantly – especially in today's world - lifts also conserve water.

The first ever boat lift in Britain was an experimental one by Robert Weldon of Litchfield who made a model for demonstration purposes at Oakengates, Shropshire in 1794. He was asked to proceed with the construction of the real thing, a cassion lock to lift boats up a 46' rise. Unfortunately the lift jammed and failed.

Anderton Boat Lift

Nearly 100 years later, the Anderton Boat Lift was constructed.

1875

• Anderton Boat Lift opened
• The lift was built an impressive 60 feet high, allowing it to clear the 50-foot difference in height between the River Weaver and the Trent & Mersey Canal
• The entire structure was 85 feet long and 49 feet wide, while the aqueduct was 165 feet long
• Each tank weighed a staggering 91 tonnes empty and 252 tonnes when flooded. These giants were 75ft long, 15 feet 6 inches wide, and 9 feet 6 inches deep in the middle. They were big enough for 2 narrow boats or 1 barge
  Edwin Clark, the designer of the lift, went on to design bigger lifts on the Continent. Check out his lifts at La Louviere in Belgium

1908

• Adding the machinery deck brought the overall height to 80 feet, while the A-frames added to support it widened the lift to 75 feet at its base
• Each tank was counterbalanced by 252 tonnes of cast iron counterweights, attached by wire ropes. There were 36 stacks of counterweights on each side, weighing 7 tonnes each
• The lift boasted 72 geared pulley wheels in all, and the largest ones, which took the lifting and safety ropes, weighed 3.5 tonnes each
• There were 8 on either side
• There were a further 20 pulley wheels taking 2 lifting ropes each, and 36 wheels with one lifting rope each
• The shafts bearing the pulleys were 8 inches in diameter
• The pulley pedestals weighed between 193 and 466lbs each

1983

The lift worked until 1983 when serious deterioration of the structure was discovered.

2001

• Some £7m was raised to fund the restoration
• The lift was restored to full hydraulic operation
  the 1908 structure and pulley wheels were retained as a static monument
• The replacement hydraulic ram shafts replicate the original 3-foot diameter rams and are 56 feet long when retracted and l06 feet long when fully extended
  the ram shafts are 56ft deep
• Each ram weighs around 50 tonnes
• Restoration was successfully completed and the Anderton Boat Lift reopened in 2002

Foxton Inclined Plane

One of the most famous boat lifts in Britain was the Foxton Inclined Plane.

In 1810 an Act of Parliament was passed authorising the construction of the Grand Union Canal from the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Canal at Foxton to the Grand Junction Canal at Buckby.

The act opened a route from the River Thames at Brentford to the East Midlands, including the coalfields of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The appointed engineer was Benjamin Bevan and work began immediately on the first major challenge, that of raising the canal 75ft up a steep escarpment at Foxton.

Benjamin Bevan, the engineer, worked on the major challenge of raising the canal 75ft up a steep escarpment at Foxton. He opted for two flights of five staircase locks – a unique design where the locks share a pair of gates allowing a much steeper flight of locks to be built. The locks took about two years to build and the canal was opened fully on the 9 August 1814. Today, they're essentially the same as they were when they were built, which is a lasting testament to the design and the quality of the construction.

By the end of the 19th century the amount of commercial traffic on the canals was in decline thanks to the new railways. In 1893, the local factory owners and boat companies suggested Foxton and Watford were made wider, and the canal was dredged, conditions would be much better, and they would be able to run large steam boats, which would allow them to compete with the railways.

In 1894 the Grand Junction Canal Company took over the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Canal and the newly built Grand Union Canal, which then became known as the Leicester Line of the Grand Junction Canal.

Design and construction of the Inclined Plane

The company approved plans for the construction of the inclined plane in 1887 and in November the contract for the construction of the inclined plane was given to J & H Gwynne & Co of Hammersmith for a total price of £14,130 (over £1.4m today).

The design consisted of two counterbalanced caissons that could each hold two narrow boats or one wide-beam barge. The caissons would raise or lower boats the 75ft between the top and bottom of the lock flight in 12 minutes, compared to the 70 that using the locks took. The plane was powered by a steam engine located at the top of the plane in an engine house which is now the Boilerhouse Museum.

The plane was opened on 10 July 1900. But it was never a commercial success. Decreasing canal traffic, high running costs and the fact that the locks at Watford were never widened meant that the wide steam boats never came. The plane was mothballed in 1911 to save money before it was dismantled and sold for scrap in 1928.

But if you visit Foxton Locks today it is still possible to make out it's ghostly form in the landscape thanks to some 21st century technolgy.