Summary
An aqueduct on the Lancaster Canal and an associated weir on the River Calder built in 1797 to a design by the engineer John Rennie.
Reasons for Designation
Bridge 52, the Calder Aqueduct on the Lancaster Canal and the associated weir on the River Calder, built in 1797 by John Rennie, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
History
Initially envisaged as a route from the Bridgewater Canal at Worsley through to Kendal, Cumbria, for the transportation of coal north from the Lancashire coalfields and limestone south from Cumbria, part of the route of what became known as the Lancaster Canal was surveyed by James Brindley in 1772. Robert Whitworth completed the survey the same year but it was not until 1791/2 when John Rennie (1761-1821) was appointed engineer that work began on a revised route in two sections north and south of the River Ribble at Preston. By 1797 a 42.4 mile length from Preston north to Tewitfield was opened and Bridge No.52, the Calder Aqueduct and weir, designed by Rennie, is located on this initial length of the canal. The two arms of the bridge's eastern parapet have been latterly partly rebuilt. The southern length of the canal was linked to the northern end by a tramway approximately five miles long that ran across the Ribble valley from Preston to Walton Summit. The tramway was built by John Rennie & William Cartwright and opened in 1803. It remained in use until the 1860s. In 1813 work began on the canal north from Tewitfield to Kendal and this opened in 1819. Construction then began on a 2.5 mile Glasson Dock link connecting the canal with the sea at Glasson Dock on the Lune estuary which opened in 1826.
Details
An aqueduct carrying the Lancaster Canal over the River Calder together with a weir on the river. It was built at the time of the canal's opening in 1797 by the engineer John Rennie and is constructed of sandstone with later alterations in concrete.
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