Boat lifts in the UK

Once upon a time England’s canals and rivers were the motorways of their days and all sorts of goods were transported from one end of the country to the other. These days canals and rivers are generally used for recreational pursuits but raising and lowering boats from one level to another, be it on the same waterway or between two different waterways, still remains an engineering issue. This paper looks at three very different boat lifts found around the UK: the Anderton Lift, described as the “cathedral of the canals” was opened in 1875 and still survives today; The Foxton Lift in Leicestershire was built in 1899 and only saw a few years’ service; and the most recent acquisition to the canal network, The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland, which opened in 2002.