One Street - Cogs

There was no traffic on One Street this evening when I went out for a walk so I settled for this close up of a hand operated crane at London Road.

The Bridgewater canal is a contour canal which meanders along follow the contours of the land. This was a very cost effective way to build canals as it avoided costly engineering work such as tunnels through higher ground, building embankments over lower ground and constructing locks. It also meant that maintenance costs are lower than other canals. While you may have to take a longer route you do not have delays at locks which can slow down your progress significantly. In the event of the canal being breached they have stop boards, and these hand cranked cranes to lift the boards into place, to isolate sections of the canal.