The weir in 1915 |
Now the Mersey is prone to flooding and after a particularly bad flood in 1799 the weir was built to channel storm water across the plain and into the Kickety Brook and so lessening the danger to the aqueduct which carried the Duke’s Canal.
And floods and the story of floods regularly pop up on the blog including the tale of the weir and Kickety Brook,.
Almost the same spot today © Nigel Anderson |
Their pictures show a benign spot, but it was not always so.
The river could flood with little warning and on one occasion a farmer just had time to release his horses from the cart as the water swept across the open land.
The weir from the flood plain, 1915 |
It was, wrote Thomas Ellwood the local historian
“no uncommon thing to see the great level of green fields completely covered with water presenting the appearance of a large lake , several miles in circuit,” and he recorded six major floods between December 1880 and October 1881.
Looking towards Kickety Brook from the weir © Michael J Thompson
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This happened in 1840 and in the following year it was rebuilt by the engineer William Cubitt.
After litigation the cost of repair was borne by the Bridgewater Trust who paid out £1,500, the Turnpike Commissioners £500, Thomas de Trafford £1,000 and Wilbraham Egerton £1,000.
*Hardy Productions UK https://sites.google.com/site/hardyprodsuk/
Pictures; of the weir in 1915 from the Lloyd collection and the weir today courtesy of Nigel Anderson and Michael J Thompson
I rememver as a child Chorlton meadows flooding after heavey rain and the Mersey overflowing until they built the banks up from where the wide footpath is now to the top footpath sometime in the late 50s
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