[3] Latchford viaduct was opened on 8 July 1893 to carry the London and North Western Railway's Stockport to Warrington line over the Manchester Ship Canal.

It finally closed to all traffic in July 1985, when it was deemed too expensive to make extensive repairs to keep Latchford viaduct operational.

A ship mooring area was provided on the canal's south bank and enabled two large vessels to pass each other at this point.

Latchford is bounded to the south by the Manchester Ship Canal and Stockton Heath and to the north by the River Mersey and Howley.

The Mersey is so improved now that salmon and trout are often seen, as are herons, kingfishers and cormorants, especially in the wide pool on the river bend below the weir.

Victoria Park has a large running track which is the home of Warrington Athletic Club, and has bowling greens, a skate-park and various other leisure facilities.

Black Bear Canal, now infilled and used as Black Bear Park, once ran from docks on the Manchester Ship Canal near Wilderspool Causeway (to the west of Latchford) to the Mersey at Manor Lock in Howley, providing a shortcut for shipping, avoiding a large river bend and weir.

Once the Manchester Ship Canal was dug, in the 1890s, it was shortened to one mile, from Stockton Heath to the River Mersey, at Manor Lock.

After a local boy drowned in the late 1960s, it was converted in 1981 into a parkland forming a line from Victoria Park and the banks of the River Mersey, through to Stockton Heath.