Anderton boat lift: restoring the Cathedral of the Canals Available to Purchase

The Anderton boat lift in north-west England is the world's first boat lift. Built in 1875, the ‘Cathedral of the Canals’ initially used an innovative system of balanced water rams to transport boats between a navigable river and a 15 m higher canal. It was converted to an electrical pulley system 33 years later but finally succumbed to structural decay in 1983. This paper reports on the complex £7·8 million project to restore and reopen the lift, which has involved installing a modern version of the original hydraulic system within a painstakingly restored iron and steel structure.