RIVER WEAVER:
A river, in it’s natural state, is not much good for commercial boat traffic. Such boats need to travel a substantial length of the river and they don’t take kindly to shallows, ‘rapids’, or floods. To make a river suitable for commercial boats it needs to be converted, by means of engineering, to a ‘River Navigation’. This is done by building lock cuts to circumnavigate obstacles, such as natural weirs. Where appropriate the natural course is canalized to keep the depth suitable etc etc. So when we say the River Weaver we should more accurately refer to it as the ‘Weaver Navigation’.

As a navigation, the Weaver has historically been the main transport to and from the sea (via the Mersey) for the Cheshire salt industry. It was made and adapted as a navigation suitable for quite large seagoing ships, with locks and water course of a suitable size. Sadly the seagoing craft no longer visit the navigation, but their heritage is very clear to see.

But the Weaver wasn’t just used by ships servicing the salt industry. Running very close to the newly constructed Trent & Mersey canal at Anderton, the ‘potteries’ could be served with a link to the sea via the Mersey. So a transhipment basin was constructed at Anderton, where goods could be transferred from the T&M canal down onto the river, 50ft below. Originally goods were transferred by various means such as chute, tramway, or even wheelbarrow. Then the Anderton Lift was constructed to lift narrowboats in water filled caissons up and down between the two levels - a real wonder of it’s time - opened in 1875 (Later derelict from 1982 until reopening in 2002).
 

Willow following a smaller boat into the caisson on the Anderton Lift. Guillotine doors isolate the caisson for descent to the Weaver below.	Ready to descend, supervised by friendly (if a bit bashful) BW staff..	Now in the deep water of the Weaver, looking back to the Liift. The Edwin Clark trip boat waits for its turn to ascend.	Moorings on the Weaver in Northwich, with Town Swing Bridge in the background. The whole bridge swings to allow taller vessels to pass through (ships in the past).

So to bring us up to date, we now regularly cruise the Weaver, by descending the Lift from the T&M. Don’t be fooled, despite the Weaver’s industrial past, it’s an interesting and often very attractive navigation. The Lift itself has been totally revamped and now boasts an attached visitor centre, with integral computerized operations room, situated in pleasant grounds.

Once down on the River we can head upstream and moor up in Northwich town centre, perhaps for some shopping - perhaps see the huge swing bridges move aside for the odd bigger boat. Later we can head off down stream, past the Lift, to the very attractive setting of Saltersford Lock (huge - electrically operated - friendly BW staff).

Little Roseanne delivers her free range eggs direct to Willow in Saltersford Lock. Her marketing agent, Lock Keeper Bryn, supervises the safety aspect of the operation.	Trip boat scene on one of the Weaver's lower reaches.	Willow (longer of the two hotelboats) waits to ascend the Lift from the Weaver, back up onto the Trent & Mersey Canal.

Further downstream you would be forgiven for not realising that we are fairly close to Industrial Frodsham and Runcorn. At 'Devils Garden', they are hidden from view, with only woodland, pleasant rural scenes and, riverside walks - very pleasant overnight moorings with no lights to be seen. Kingfisher sightings are commonplace. We can, later, continue downstream to sail past the oil refineries around Runcorn as the river heads for the Mersey - but we usually turn around for more peaceful upstream scenes.