In 2012, the Meccano Bridge was installed at the top of what was once a flight of locks at Prestolee. The area, known by the unusual name of Nob End, is where the three arms of the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal meet. The footbridge was designed by artist Liam Curtin, after considerable consultation with local residents. It is made from ‘scaled up’ pieces of Meccano, and from its vantage point visitors can see commanding views out over the countryside. The area around the site has much hidden history, waiting to be uncovered.
The Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal was authorised by an act of Parliament in 1791. Matthew Fletcher, a local landowner, engineer and coal miner, was one of the chief instigators. His skill set meant that he was able to act as a surveyor and technical advisor on the project. The waterway was originally only going to be for narrow gauge boats, but during construction the decision was made to widen it. This was so that it could join with the planned Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Red Moss near Horwich. However, a decision was made to change the route of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, and so the two waterways were destined never to be met. The Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal opened in 1797, stretching some 15 miles.
The main use of the canal was to carry coal from the many collieries in the area. Some were situated alongside its bank, and this enabled the boats to be directly loaded from the pit heads. Those collieries further away were connected to it by tram roads. Other goods transported included stone, sand, lime, salt, fruit, timber and manure.
Prestolee Locks
The Bolton and Bury arms were constructed on the same level, with the Manchester arm some 64 feet below them, accessed by descending through a flight of six locks. On the Bolton arm of the canal, close to the uppermost lock, was a small hub of canal-related activity. The Triangular Workshop, named for its unusual shape, contained a blacksmith’s, a carpenter’s shop and an office. Beside this were built two canal cottages and a canal manager’s house, and these still stand today. Providing hospitality for the canal workers and locals was a pub known as the Boat House in 1825, but which twenty years later appears as Nob Inn on the Ordinance Survey map.
The six locks were arranged in two flights of three, with a passing pound in the middle that could hold more than one boat. Close to the pound was the lock-keeper’s cottage. At the bottom of the flight was a wider basin which had a loading crane next to it. The canal was then carried over the River Irwell by the Prestolee Aqueduct, which is still in place today.
Starting around 1800 and continuing for the next forty years, Packet Boats took passengers from Bolton to Manchester on a three hour journey. To spare the slow descent through six locks, passengers disembarked at the top lock and followed a path beside the flight, down to the lower basin. Here they boarded a second boat to Manchester. The path had a covered walkway to protect people from inclement weather. A second service also ran from Bolton to Bury.
Later Developments
The canal company was renamed the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal Navigation and Railway Company in 1831. The previous year, there had been talk of filling in the canal and converting it to a railway line. This did not come to pass but, in 1838, the company built a railway which connected Manchester to Bolton. The Packet Boats were then deemed to be superfluous to requirements and were sold. They were thought to be uneconomical and, being faster than the goods traffic on the canal, their wakes had caused damage to the canal banks. Despite this relatively faster speed, they were presumably no match for the new train service. Eight years later, the company was taken over by the Manchester and Leeds Railway Company, which changed its name the following year to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.
Disaster and Decline
The three arms of the canal did not all go out of use at the same time. The Bolton part was the first to fall into disuse, by 1924. On 6th July 1936, a major breach occurred on the Bury arm at Prestolee. A large amount of the canal wall and towpath fell down into the valley below. Millions of gallons of water poured through the vast cavity, flowing into the River Irwell, bringing with it tons of soil and rock. The section was never repaired, but this did not spell the end for the Bury arm as some four miles of it could still be used from Bury to the Ladyshore Colliery. Activity only ceased on this part in 1951. Four years later, the British Transport Commission stated that there was not enough commercial activity to keep the canal open and, in 1961, an Act of Parliament was passed for the final closure of all parts.
Hope and Renewal
In 1987, the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal Society formed to give protection to the waterway. Importantly, they campaigned to stop buildings being constructed on land that would encroach upon it, with the hope that sections of it could be reopened, and perhaps one day the whole length of the three arms could be brought back into use. This was an ambitious vision, and progress has been very slow, but progress there has been nonetheless.
The first major restoration work was on the Middlewood section in Salford, in 2008. Here, a mere 500 metres of canal was brought back into use, after a huge amount of engineering work. The canal, which had previously been filled in, was re-dug and connected to the River Irwell. This meant that it was now joined to the rest of the English network, which would be crucial if it was to ever become a viable waterway again. The engineering work on this project was impressive and, at £6 million, expensive. The cost was due in part to the creation of a new canal tunnel, under the Salford Inner Relief Road, and a railway viaduct. In addition, a new deep lock was constructed (the third deepest in the country), old locks were repaired and two new canal basins created.
The Meccano Bridge
In 2010, money became available to build an art work in the Little Lever area. The funding came from Bolton at Home, a local housebuilding and home rental charity. Artist Liam Curtin was commissioned to work with the Little Lever community to come up with an idea for the art work. With such an open brief, Liam first worked with locals to gather ideas. This was done while constructing a star-shaped boat sculpture, covered in compact discs. This temporary work gave him the idea of having a large permanent boat structure, and he put together a presentation on this. However, when he unveiled his idea to the public, he did not even get all the way through his talk, as there were objections that such a creation could lead to drownings.
Liam had a complete rethink, and came up with the idea of a functioning bridge. A suitable site was suggested, that of the Horse Bridge that once spanned the canal at Prestolee, at the head of the flight of six locks. The Horse Bridge was so named because it was used to lead the horses over as they passed from the Bury arm of the canal to the opposite side of the bank on the Bolton arm. It was a wooden construction and had long since rotted away, leaving a gap over the empty canal underneath.
Liam worked on many hundreds of sketches but was finding inspiration difficult. When his computer which contained all of these designs was stolen, he took it as a sign to start again. One of the major difficulties of the Prestolee site was that there was no access for a heavy truck or crane. This meant that the parts would have to be brought and fitted together on site. In dealings with Bolton Council and Bolton at Home, talk had centred around fitting the pieces together “like Meccano”. Inspiration struck and Liam realised that Meccano, scaled up, would be the perfect solution.
He designed the bridge to use Meccano pieces ten times their original size, made of 8mm galvanised steel. An engineer from Bolton Council was brought in to work on the complex construction details. The pieces and their connecting nuts and bolts were manufactured in two factories in Bolton. The colour scheme for the parts was based on the one used in 1950s Meccano.
Work began in October 2012, with the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal Society acting as consultants. Volunteers from both the canal society and the local community were brought in. Their first job was to clear the vegetation as the area was heavily overgrown. Then the abutments either side of the canal had to be inspected. They consisted of stone bases with brick sides. While one was found to be almost complete, the other had to be mostly rebuilt from ground level. Brick from the recently demolished Triangular Workshop was re-used in rebuilding the side walls. Traditional lime mortar was used to hold the bricks in place, and setts (often misnamed ‘cobbles’) were laid down alongside the new bridge.
Once this work was complete, the bridge itself could be constructed, by hand. The red plates were the heaviest, at 80 kg each, and required four people to carry them. Once the 720 nuts and bolts were put in place, they were secured by having the threads damaged to stop the bridge from being taken apart again. In total, the mass of the bridge is five and half tonnes.
Latest developments
In 2019, money was spent on improving the towpath between the Meccano Bridge and Hall Lane in Little Lever. This means that there is now a good surface for walkers and cyclists to traverse. Two years later, Watson Homes put forward a plan to repair the major breach at Prestolee. In 2021, a study was carried out to restore the Little Lever to Bury section of the canal, at a cost of £6 million. Whether or when either of these projects will happen is not yet clear.
Visiting today
The Meccano Bridge is in excellent condition since it was put in place over ten years ago. The top three locks can be seen from its vantage point, with the lower three harder to discern as they were filled in long ago. Close by, on the Bolton arm, are the two original canal cottages and the canal manager’s house. The space where the Triangular Workshop once stood is now a triangular-shaped small private car park. The Bolton arm of the canal at this point has water in it but the Bury arm is dry. Nob Inn pub is now a cattery.
The Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal Society, as a small, dedicated group, have been working for a long time to restore the canal. This is a difficult feat as, since it fell into disuse, parts have been filled in, built over, drained and generally neglected. Their dream to have the whole of the 15 miles restored and reopened to narrow boats on the water, and foot and cycle traffic on the towpath, is a worthy one. By connecting the Salford end to the canal network, they took a large step towards realising this. There is still much work to be done. If you would like to join them, or support their efforts, see their website here.
Site visited by A. and R. Bowden (2023)
Access
There is a free car park at Moses Gate Country Park. Follow the path that takes you over the Red Bridge (marked on the map below) and bear left. Keep heading north to reach the Bolton arm of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal (marked on the map). Follow the canal towpath, passing the canal manager’s house and canal cottages. This will bring you out at the Meccano Bridge.
Nearby
Fred Dibnah Statue and Corliss Steam Engine
References
Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Through Time, Paul Hindle (2013) Amberley Publishing
mbbcs.org.uk
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Bolton_%26_Bury_Canal
Meccano Bridge
The Story of The Meccano Bridge by Liam Curtin. Published in Manchester Geographies. Available for free as a pdf online.
Liam Curtin Proposal for Meccano Bridge. Pdf document available online
boltonathome.org.uk/percent-for-art/2012-meccano-bridge-1609/
liamcurtin.co.uk/meccano-bridge
aajpress.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/liam-curtin-meccano-bridge-bolton/
Restoration Funding
burytimes.co.uk/news/17497532.manchester-bolton-bury-canal-gets-800-000-improvement-funding/
volkerstevin.co.uk/en/our-projects/detail/middlewood-lock-restoration
placenorthwest.co.uk/middlewood-canal-reopened/
penninewaterways.co.uk/mbb/mbbc5.htm
mbbcs.org.uk/margaretfletchertunnel.html
Lancashire Past 
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