page_title: The Towers (Manchester)
section_title: Manchester Ship Canal
hierarchical_section_title: The Towers (Manchester) / History / Manchester Ship Canal
caption_attribution_description: English: Lodge of the Towers, Didsbury, Manchester, England.
context_page_description: The Towers is a research establishment for new technologies in cotton production. The Shirley Institute was established in 1920 at a cost of £10,000 to accommodate the newly formed British Cotton Industry Research Association. It is a Grade II* listed building in the suburb of Didsbury, located 6 miles south of the centre of Manchester, England.
context_section_description: The Towers was once the home of the notable engineer Daniel Adamson – whose idea for the canalisation of the Rivers Irwell and Mersey resulted in the creation of the Manchester Ship Canal project which made the rivers into Manchester navigable for sea-going ships.
  He invited representatives of several Lancashire towns, local businessmen and politicians, and two civil engineers, Hamilton Fulton and Edward Leader Williams. Fulton proposed a tidal canal, with no locks and a deepened channel into Manchester; Williams was in favour of a series of locks. Both engineers were invited to submit proposals, and Williams' plans were selected to form the basis of a bill submitted to Parliament in November 1882. Because of intense opposition by Liverpool and the railway companies, the necessary enabling Act of Parliament was not passed until 6 August 1885. Certain conditions were attached: £5 million had to be raised, and the ship canal company had to buy both the Bridgewater Canal and the Mersey & Irwell Navigation within two years.
caption: Blue plaque on the Lodge of the Towers commemorating the conception of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1882
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