page_title: River Weaver
section_title: Locks
hierarchical_section_title: River Weaver / History / Locks
caption_attribution_description: Former railway signals protecting the locks at Hunts Lock on the en:River Weaver Navigation at en:Northwich with Northwich Railway Viaduct ("The Arches") behind. Saturday, 2 August 2008. The location is adjacent to The en:Salt Museum, Northwich. These manually-operated railway semaphore signals are placed in the centre between the paired locks and direct boats and Narrowboats into either the larger, or smaller of the two locks. The "reflected" signals are possible as one of the signals has been reassembled back to front, in a non-standard fashion.
context_page_description: The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732. An unusual clause in the enabling Act of Parliament stipulated that profits should be given to the County of Cheshire for the improvement of roads and bridges, but the navigation was not initially profitable, and it was 1775 before the first payments were made. Trade continued to rise, and by 1845, over £500,000 had been given to the county.
  The major trade was salt. The arrival of the Trent and Mersey Canal at Anderton in 1773 was detrimental to the salt trade at first, but ultimately beneficial, as salt was tipped down chutes from the canal into barges on the river navigation. Access to the river was improved in 1810 by the Weston Canal, which provided a link to Weston Point, where boats could reach the River Mersey at most states of the tide, as the water was deeper.
context_section_description: The locks on the river are paired, with two lock chambers side-by-side, and in most cases the larger lock also has intermediate gates, so that ships of varying length can be accommodated, without undue waste of water. The maximum size of the locks is 196 by 35 feet (60 by 11 m) above the Anderton boat lift, and 213 by 37 feet (65 by 11 m) below it. The lock at Weston Point Docks is slightly narrower, at 213 by 36 feet (65 by 11 m). The boat lift is designed for canal craft rather than ships, and so can hold vessels up to 72 by 14 feet (21.9 by 4.3 m) with a draught of 4 feet (1.2 m).
caption: Signals between the chambers at Hunt's Lock, Northwich railway viaducts behind
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