Barton Aqueduct

The Barton Aqueduct, opened on 17 July 1761, carried the Bridgewater Canal over the River Irwell at Barton-upon-Irwell, in the historic county of Lancashire, England.

Designed largely by James Brindley under the direction of John Gilbert,[1] it was the first navigable aqueduct to be built in England, "one of the seven wonders of the canal age" according to industrial archaeologist Mike Nevell.

Work began in 1759, but it was quickly decided to alter the route by building a masonry aqueduct to carry the waterway over the Irwell at Barton, and terminate instead in Manchester, to the south of the river.

A Bill to authorise the new route was presented to parliament on 13 November 1759, and in January the following year Brindley travelled to London to give evidence before a parliamentary committee in support of the proposal.

[12] The aqueduct was opened to traffic on 17 July 1761, only 15 months after the enabling Act had been passed,[13] and it was soon being used by the duke's barges to carry coal to Manchester from his mines at Worsley.

[8] The construction of the aqueduct excited great admiration, and writers of the day often remarked on the strange and novel sight afforded by the canal where it crossed the Irwell.

A pole 15 feet (4.6 m) high in the centre of the arch at the Stretford bank supported a semaphore system with two arms on each side, operated by levers at ground level.

[16] In the first volume of his Lives of the Engineers (1862) Scottish author Samuel Smiles said of the construction that "Humble though it now appears, it was parent of the magnificent aqueducts of Rennie and Telford, and the viaducts of Stephenson and Brunel".

c. clxxxviii), which allowed for the construction of a navigable waterway large enough to accommodate ocean-going vessels from the estuary of the River Mersey the 36 miles (58 km) into Manchester, partly along the Irwell.