Excavating Manchester Dock & Chester Basin?

The Canal Link actually runs through the in-filled Chester Basin and Manchester Dock, north of the Canning Graving Docks. The basin and dock are still there underground complete with granite quays. Common sense would dictate fully excavating the basin and if possible the adjacent Manchester Dock too, which had a river lock. The location of the lock position is visible from the river wall at the Canning Dock. Archaeologists are to dig out much of the dock and basin. Leaving the water spaces uncovered and refilled with water would be the most appropriate action. These docks are over 220 years old. The canal could run right through Chester Basin giving berths for canal boats and adding to the charm of the Pier Head.

Any sensible developer would want to reinstate these small historic water spaces, as they would add value to their projects and gain public acceptability.

Below: Manchester Dock and Chester Basin are to the south west of the Dock Board Office at the Pier Head.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/watercity/Map-PierHead-1910.jpg

http://www.saveliverpooldocks.co.uk
Go to: Canal Link page

Manchester Dock has been excavated.

http://usera.imagecave.com/daveelll/DSCF0461-copy.jpg

Picture courtesy of Dave e of the Sailors home forum.

I don't know when it was filled, it shows on the 1851 Ordnance Survey map.

Some pics I took today of the excavation of the old Manchester Dock and gates.

Some slight damage seems to have done to the gates - it would appear that they used mechanical diggers...

(Kev feel free to move if there's somewhere better for these to go - still finding my way around the forum!)

Thanks

Some pics I took today of the excavation of the old Manchester Dock and gates.

Some slight damage seems to have done to the gates - it would appear that they used mechanical diggers...

(Kev feel free to move if there's somewhere better for these to go - still finding my way around the forum!)

Thanks
Cracking pics Lad, thanks.
There's a few more taken by the Museum guys over at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmuseumsliverpool/sets/72157594467459766/

LIVERPOOL’S past is being explored by a team of archaeologists before work on the new Museum of Liverpool begins.

A dig is taking place in the Manchester Dock, Chester basin and quaysides on Mann Island.

It is hoped the excavation will reveal some of the city’s history. The dock was in use from 1785 until the 1920s when it was filled in using rubble from the construction of the Mersey tunnel.

It was originally used as a depot for barges of the Shropshire Union Canal Company and from the Great Western Railway.

In the 19th century, it played an important role in Liverpool’s import and export trade, handling coal and manufactured goods which were leaving the city and corn and cotton coming into Liverpool.

Archaeologists expect to find the dock walls, lock gates and associated buildings and dock fittings.

The Museum of Liverpool will be built by 2008 and open to the public in 2010. It will be housed in a new landmark building and cover the social history and popular culture of Merseyside.

The old museum, with its limited floor space, could no longer accommodate the more than 300,000 visits a year it was receiving.

The National Museums Liverpool’s outstanding collections, currently held in storage, will also by on display.

marymurtagh@liverpoolecho.co.uk

Manchester Dock - 10th Feb 2007

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/385670513_cb4886b900_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/385670513/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/385669091_e9751e4cf7.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/385669091/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/385668782_b2825a6965.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/385668782/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/137/385668240_0656cdcf3a.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/385668240/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/174/385667981_a969777b87.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/385667981/)

more (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/sets/72157594528081923/)......

Surely (by looking at those images Kev Posted) the new Liverpool Pier Head Canal Link will run right across the Manchester Dock? If it doesn't, the X-box will be plonked over it will it not?

I never knew that there was a "Manchester Dock" but if I was building something there, It could potentially make a great focal point for a foyer or something like that.

Why Is their so many names for the docks?

Princes, Albert, Queens, Kings and now Manchester!

Calling It Manchester too, the cheek of It.:Colorz_Grey_PDT_24:

Probably because Manchester was another important industrial town, and Liverpool was the nearest port supplying Manchester with the goods it needed. It would be interesting to find out more about dock names, although a lot of them are self-explanatory or easily researched, such as Huskisson, Canada, Gladstone, etc.

Probably because Manchester was another important industrial town, and Liverpool was the nearest port supplying Manchester with the goods it needed. It would be interesting to find out more about dock names, although a lot of them are self-explanatory or easily researched, such as Huskisson, Canada, Gladstone, etc.

Ken McCarron and Adrian Jarvis have done a book, Give A Dock A Good Name (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Give-Dock-Good-Name-McCarron/dp/0951612948), which traces the origins of each of Liverpool's docks and also the reasons behind their names.

AN archaeological excavation is under way in advance of the construction of the new Museum of Liverpool on the city's famous waterfront.

A team from National Museums Liverpool is excavating parts of the former Manchester Dock, Chester Basin and the nearby quaysides on the Mann Island site.

Over the past month the excavations have exposed the layout of the 19th-century Manchester Dock following the removal of the 20th-century surface.

A viewing platform has been erected so that visitors to the area can see the excavation which will eventually be four metres deep and covers the footprint of the new museum.

The dock, which was filled in during the 1920s, was originally used as a depot for barges belonging to the Shropshire Union Canal Company and later the Great Western Railway. continues (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=excavation-under-way-at-museum-site%26method=full%26objectid=18643453%26siteid=50 061-name_page.html)....

Daily Post vid of Manchester Dock (http://videos.icnetwork.co.uk/icliverpool/dig2Lg_Prog001.wmv)

Why Is their so many names for the docks?

Princes, Albert, Queens, Kings and now Manchester!

Calling It Manchester too, the cheek of It.:Colorz_Grey_PDT_24:

The blurb outside the excavation says the dock was first used for canal barges off the Shropshire Union Canal coming into Liverpool. I wondered if in fact the dock got its name from the fact that the dock was built originally for river barges that came from Manchester via the Irwell and Mersey navigation. I'll have to delve to check this one out. This navigation predated the Bridgwater Canal.

They're not gonna fill it in are they? :shock:

I was wondering this. Or perhaps if they've already filled it in? Pedestrian access is no longer possible down there, but I intend to find out what's going on down there...

I passed this morning, but the Riverside Walk is closed off. 20T trucks were being loaded with rubble. I've not heard that any of the dock is being preserved or incorporated into the new museum.

Chester Basin area.

It's all fenced off now, but the gaps are just wide enough to get a lens in.
It's already been partly filled with concrete.

Campaigners: don’t bury history under a museum

AN 11th-HOUR attempt has been made to protect the historic Manchester Dock and stop it being buried under the new Museum of Liverpool.

An application to protect the dock has been lodged with English Heritage, in a bid to stop the dock – unearthed during work on the new museum’s foundations – from being filled in.

David Swift, of Anderson Road, Liverpool, has asked English Heritage protection officers to list Manchester Dock, constructed in 1785, and said that to cover something with such historical impor-tance would be a “travesty.”

More here (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_method=full%26objectid=18910245%26siteid=50061-name_page.html).

EDIT: BTW Philip, your pictures don't show the bit I mean. The concrete there is the base of the canal. The dock basin they're talking about is off to the right of your photos, right next to the museum. I have some pictures taken from the Cunard Building roof which I'll post later.

[B]
EDIT: BTW Philip, your pictures don't show the bit I mean. The concrete there is the base of the canal. The dock basin they're talking about is off to the right of your photos, right next to the museum. I have some pictures taken from the Cunard Building roof which I'll post later.

To be honest, I wasn't sure what I was looking at.
Are my photos part of the Manchester Dock, because I've put them on the "Old Liverpool" page, and I'd like to get my facts right.
(I'm not very clued up on Liverpool's docks.)
I saw the concrete and panicked.
That's about as near as you can get from ground level.

Some photos here (http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showpost.php?p=52328&postcount=91). In the first one you can clearly see the outline of the basin.

Thanks Snappel.

I've been checking old OS maps, and can see that what I took photos of is the Chester Basin, or the Chester Basin area, so I've edited my post which contains the photos.

OS map revised in 1924 (supplied by LRO).

Pennine Waterways (http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/ll/liverpool-link11.htm) have just updated thier page on the canal link involving a brief insight into the uncovering of the Manchester Dock amongst other things.

Manchester Dock Gates on the September 30th 2007:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1179/1462520315_87a3529c42_o.jpg (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1179/1462520315_87a3529c42_o.jpg)