History

Courtesy of River Weaver Navigation Society.

W J Yarwood and Sons - Shipbuilders

Through its salt trade and the River Weaver Navigation’s connection to Liverpool – Northwich, in Mid Cheshire, has long been associated with shipbuilding. But it was W J Yarwood and Sons Shipbuilders in Navigation Road, Northwich that brought it to the forefront. The company founder, William James Yarwood, was born in 1851 and after serving an apprenticeship at a Northwich ironfounders, he became a blacksmith with the River Weaver Navigation. In 1896 he purchased the former John Thompson shipbuilding business – the forerunner of W J Yarwoods and Sons. Customers included the Manchester Ship Canal Company and the Brunner Mond – which became a part of Imperial Chemical Industries. In 1965 the last vessel built at Yarwood’s was a 168-ton diesel tug, the St Elmo. When the yard closed the total output from Yarwood’s had been over 1,000 vessels.

ICI River Trade

When Ludwig Mond and John Brunner established their chemical works at Winnington in 1873, a new chapter in both the history of Northwich and the River Navigation was about to be written. The company grew steadily over the next 50 years and in 1924 acquired the Magadi Soda Company of Kenya. In 1926, Brunner Mond merged with three other British chemical companies to form Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), a venture that grew to become one of the world's largest and most successful companies. In 1991 Brunner Mond was re-created as an independent company by the acquisition of the UK and Kenyan soda ash businesses from ICI. This Chapter of history continues to this day and the chemical empire is now owned by Tata Chemicals Europe. ICI’s works at Winnington, on the River Weaver, receives its limestone by rail from Derbyshire but for many years used coasters to export its finished product.

The Anderton Boat Lift

The Anderton Boat Lift has an amazing story from when it was originally built in 1875 to its restoration by the local community in 2002. Built in 1875, under the direction of Victorian Engineers Edward Leader Williams, John Watt Sandeman and Edwin Clark, the Lift carries boats 54 feet and 4 inches from the River Weaver up the Trent and Mersey Canal.  Prior to that, goods were transferred between the two waterways by chutes which was slow and labour intensive. Originally built under hydraulic power the Lift was converted to electric in 1908 under the supervision of Colonel J. A.Saner - Engineer to the Weaver Navigation Trustees. In 1983, the Lift was deemed unsafe and closed to traffic but through both pressure and hard work from the local community – especially the Friends of the Anderton Boat Lift – a £7 million restoration programme brought the Lift back to life on 26th March 2002. A great champion of the Lift was the late Fred Dibnah MBE, who visited the Lift and the River Weaver Navigation in 2004 at the end of a day's filming assignment. Fred described the Lift as “simply wonderful”.