The Bridgewater Canal Project
Commissioned by Salford City Council
For the Bridgewater Canal 2017
20mm thick waterjet cut ‘Cor-Ten’ steel
Commissioned by Salford City Council as part of a £3.6 million Heritage Lottery funded project, these pieces were installed Autumn 2017. The new canal side features were created from water-jet cut 20 mm thick Cor-Ten Steel. Also known as ‘Weathering Steel’, this metal is designed to have a long lasting rusty patina and was selected for this project for its colour. The Bridgewater Canal is permanently stained an orange colour due to oxide residues seeping into the water from the redundant mine workings it once serviced.
In Patricroft is a navvy man who represents the many hundreds of men who excavated the land to build the canal in 1761. The Bridgewater Canal is the world’s first true canal – one that wasn’t an already existing waterway.
Featured characters are John Gilbert who was land agent and engineer to the Duke of Bridgewater, often credited with being the driving force behind the building of the Bridgewater Canal. Also featured is Francis Egerton (The Duke of Bridgewater), and James Brindley canal engineer.
Look out for them along the towpath between Worsley and Boothstown.
Further along the canal at Monton is a life-size horse that would have once pulled the barges full of coal and other goods along the water.
