Trafford Park: Bridge on the Bridgewater Traditional Cache
Trafford Park: Bridge on the Bridgewater
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Another simple Trafford Park cache, this time relating to the Bridgewater Canal.
The Bridgewater Canal is perhaps the first canal built - opened on 17th July 1761, it was built by the Francis Egerton the third Duke of Bridgewater. He needed a better way of transporting his coal from his mine(s) in Worsley to central Manchester. It is arguable that the canal led ultimately to the formation of the Trafford Park Industrial area as we know it today, as industry built up in Manchester, leading to the Ship Canal and ultimately the sale of the de Trafford's home and land to form the industrial estate.
"The canal was built because of the Duke of Bridgewater's coal mines at Worsley. The coal seams ran under the higher ground to the north. The Duke's land agent, John Gilbert, saw that it was possible to connect the canal directly to the mines by way of an underground canal. This in turn could be used to help with draining the mines, providing a source of water for the canal." - Pennine Waterways [1]
"The Duke invested a large sum of money in the scheme. From Worsley to Manchester its construction cost £168,000 (£23,997,480 as of 2012), but its advantages over land and river transport meant that within a year of its opening in 1761, the price of coal in Manchester fell by about half." Wikipedia [2]
This cache is placed overlooking one of the first parts of the canal to be built - Worsley is to the north, and it runs past here to Watersmeet in Stretford; from there a branch goes off to the city centre, past Manchester United, to Castlefield (and links with the Rochdale canal); in the other direction it heads off to Runcorn, where it joins the Trent and Mersey canal at Preston Brook. North of Worsley it continues to Leigh where it links with the Leeds and Liverpool canal.
A fascinating thought is that because it was a very early canal, locks weren't around - so the entire canal is at the same level, all the way from Leigh to Runcorn - a testament to Brindley and the other engineers of the time.
There is plenty of further reading on the web - an excellent site is http://www.bridgewatercanal.co.uk/ as well as the ever excellent Pennine Waterways site I have quoted above: [1] http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/bridgewater/bri2.htm and wikipedia [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgewater_Canal
To access this cache, if you're driving you may wish to consider parking in the nearby B&Q car park. In fact, from GZ you can see just up the canal there's a bridge that goes over a former canal arm.
With thanks to 'waddis' for info about the bridge visible from GZ (looking towards Barton Bridge). It led to an unloading area for the coal Barton Power Station, which itself was opened in the 1920s and closing in the 70s.
A good couple of pictures are here - one from the 'Britain from Above' site, which shows the canal arm clearly, and another from the Transport archive site of the power station during demolition (but the photo is taken pretty much from GZ). Click the images to go to the original larger images on the source pages.
The cache is a small container with room for not-too-big-or-heavy travel bugs and coins, and should be a doddle to find.
SAFETY NOTE: The road is barriered off around here - there's no need to go on the road or even look on the road side. Similarly, there's no need to dangle over the canal - the cache is easily accessible from the pavement.
Congrats to CRAZY BONES on the (stupidly early o'clock) FTF!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Xrrc ybbxvat; lbh'yy svaq vg (nyzbfg) va gur raq.