It is 200m (one furlong) in length and was built to provide a direct waterway between the Mersey and Irwell Navigation and the Bridgewater Canal.

The lack of any direct canal link between the Mersey and Irwell Navigation (M&IN) and the Rochdale Canal meant that goods being transported using both waterways had to be offloaded onto carts and carried across the city, before being loaded back onto boats to continue their journey.

Due mainly to strong objections from the M&IN, who would have suffered a loss of trade, the link was not forthcoming.

[1] In 1805, John Nightingale was asked by the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company to estimate the cost of a canal link between Manchester and Salford.

A new fleet of steel barges was built in the late 1940s and early '50s, principally to carry the Kelloggs traffic.