This is the Liverpool waterfront - formerly known as Liverpool docks, where in 1715 the world's first wet dock turned Liverpool into the second largest port in the British Empire.

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The red brick building on the left of this picture is part of the warehouse complex that is Royal Albert Dock, a major tourist destination that receives around 6 million visitors per year.  The water, however, was once truly Bridgewater canal - it is Duke's Dock (but the name only appears on maps) and was built in 1773 to supply coal from Worsley to mainly the poor workers of Liverpool and later to bring raw cotton imported via Liverpool to Manchester and receive finished cotton textiles from Manchester for export around the world.​

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At Runcorn, the Bridgewater canal currently ends abruptly and you can only retrace your water steps back to Preston Brook to re-join the Bridgewater or the Trent & Mersey canal at the Preston Brook junction.

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Until the 1950's a system of locks took boats from the Bridgewater canal down onto the river Mersey (later becoming the Manchester Ship Canal) and from there to Liverpool and the dinky little (by comparison  to the mighty sea-going vessel docks) Duke's Dock.  Some of the locks were taken away to make the slip-road for the road bridge at Runcorn and eventually all the locks were filled in and the link severed.

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So Worsley really did meet the sea for nearly 200 years and until relatively recently, that was the end of the story...…  Until Unlock Runcorn was formed with the aim to reinstate the locks and eventually the link to Liverpool.

(To learn more about this project, you can visit their website here )

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This is a short version of a blog that will be published soon at bridgewatercanalguidedtours.com

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I can show you Duke's Dock and the Liverpool waterfront or Worsley and the Bridgewater canal - contact me for information and to make arrangements for private guided tours and illustrated talks for groups, societies, families & friends.