Travelling with the Manchester Ship Canal in 1927

Now like most people I have always taken the Manchester Ship Canal for granted. 

I remember the noise from the ships’ sirens welcoming in the New Year,  failed to notice the canal’s decline and have watched as the Salford end reinvented itself with an art gallery, theatre, war museum and Media City.*

It was begun in 1887, took six years to build and cost £15 million and was one of those bold commercial ventures which ranks with the building of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway fifty years earlier.**

And as a way of celebrating its construction and its role in the prosperity of the twin cities, here is one of the posters advertising its work from the 1920s and 30s by courtesy of Adge Lane.

*In 1958 38 million tons of freight came through the Canal which had fallen to 7.8 million tons by 2001.
**Opened in 1830, and was instantly a success.

Picture; from the collection of Adge Lane, from the Manchester Archive Flickr account