The Millennium Ribble Link is a linear water park and new navigation which links the once-isolated Lancaster Canal in Lancashire, England to the River Ribble. The Lancaster Canal was never connected to the rest of the English waterways network, because the planned aqueduct over the River Ribble was never built. Instead, a tramway connected the southern and northern parts of the canal. An idea for a connecting link following the course of the Savick Brook was proposed in 1979, and the Ribble Link Trust campaigned for twenty years to see it built. The turn of the Millennium, and the funds available from the Millennium Commission for projects to mark the event was the catalyst for the project to be implemented, and although completion was delayed, the navigation opened in July 2002.
The link is a navigation, as flows on the Savick Brook can be considerable, and there are large weirs and bywashes at each of the locks, to channel water around them. The lower end of the link is tidal, with boats passing over a rotating gate and through a sea lock to gain access. It is open from April to October, but only on certain days, based on the height of the tide, and boats can only travel in one direction on any one day. The cost of construction was nearly twice the original estimate, with just under half of it funded by the Millennium Commission. The project included footpaths, cycle tracks and a sculpture trail, to attract visitors other than boaters to visit it, and to generate economic returns for the local community. Since its construction, maintenance costs have been high, due to voids developing behind some of the lock walls, and the deposition of silt deposited by the incoming tides.
Although the link is strictly the canalisation of the Savick Brook, the Ribble Link is also used to refer to the crossing from Tarleton on the Rufford Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, of the River Douglas, the journey up the River Ribble and passage along the link to the Lancaster Canal.
Completing the crossing requires a little more planning than cruising on inland waterways, as the Douglas, the Ribble, and the first part of the link are tidal, but most boats make the crossing successfully. However, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution have responded to a number of callouts, where the Lytham St Annes lifeboat has had to assist vessels which have got into difficulties.
History When originally planned, the Lancaster Canal would have crossed the River Lune and the River Ribble on aqueducts, and it was intended that there should be a link to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the south of the Ribble. The Lune aqueduct was completed in 1797, but the Ribble one was not built, as the construction was well over budget by the time the canal reached Preston. The canal link was eventually replaced by a tramway link, crossing the Ribble on a wooden trestle bridge. The bridge outlasted the tramway, and it was not until the 1960s that it was demolished and replaced by a new pedestrian bridge, made of concrete beams but designed to look like the old timber structure. That structure is also under threat due to degradation of the concrete and corrosion of the steel reinforcement. The Lancaster Canal remained isolated from the rest of the English Canal network.The Millenium Ribble Link, (2002), DVD, www.videoactive.co.uk
The idea of building a connecting link between the Lancaster Canal and the rest of the English waterways system was first proposed in 1979 by John Whittaker of the Lancaster Canal Boat Club, and a feasibility study was carried out in 1981, to see if using the Savick Brook would be possible. In 1982 the Lancaster Boat Club organised a cruise from Rufford Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal up the Ribble to Preston Docks to generate publicity for the scheme. The cruise demonstrated that canal boats could navigate on this section of tidal water without difficulty, and the Ribble Link Trust was set up in 1984 to push the idea frowards. Plans were nearly thwarted in 1992, when there were proposals for a bypass around Preston, which would have crossed the Savick Brook at too low a level to leave headroom for boats, and the trust worked hard to get the plans altered.
Prior to construction of the Ribble Link starting, British Waterways carried out an archeological evaluation to establish whether any important archeological sites would be disturbed by the new waterway. This identified Mill Field close to lock 8 as the probable location of a water mill, and found evidence of a ridge and furrow field system. Although the visible remains of this were unlikely to be disturbed by the construction work, parts of it continued below the surface where the channel would be excavated, and it was hoped that its boundary ditches might be located when the work took place. The Environment Agency also carried out a fish survey, using electrofishing at eight sites along the brook, to ascertain the health of the brook as habitat for course fish. The fish were categorised as predator species, rheophilic species that prefer flowing water, and limnophilic species that prefer still water. The survey recorded eleven species of fish, with rheophilic species prominent at most of the test sites, and limnophilic species much less so. Flounder were also found in great numbers throughout the river, probably because the sand and silt on the bed of the river provide good habitat for spawning and for the survival of juvenile fish. The report concluded that fish populations were surprisingly high for a river that drained an urban area, and that chub and flounder were doing particularly well.
Flows on the Savick Brook vary considerably, from as little as up to . In order to accommodate these flows, weirs which are up to wide were required at the locks, and the bypass channels generally use the original course of the brook. In order to allow fish to continue to move along the watercourse, fish passes would be built into the weirs. The Environment Agency raised concerns about water quality, but these were withdrawn in March 1999 after North West Water announced that they would soon be building a new interceptor sewer to run close to the Savick Brook, and the Trust agreed to make the channel slightly narrower, to improve flow speeds. When originally conceived, the navigation would have had eight locks, numbered 1 to 8 from the Ribble upwards. Lock 2A was added, to ensure that the level of the pound above lock 2 did not compromise land drainage in the locality. The locks were subsequently renumbered 1 to 9 from the Lancaster Canal downwards, in order to follow the convention used on the Glasson Dock branch. (Care should be taken when reading source documents on the construction, which use the old order).
The original route for the scheme continued along the Savick Brook into Haslam Park, and then followed the Sharoe Brook to reach the Lancaster Canal. However, delays to the start of the project meant that costs kept escalating, without an equivalent increase in funding, and constructing a route that ran alongside Tom Benson Way was a cheaper option. This new route created an impossibly tight turn after the road bridge, and so a turning basin would be needed a little further along the Savick Brook. The top three locks would be built as a three-rise staircase to lift the level of the navigation up to the level of the Lancaster Canal. When first planned the locks were to be long, but this was reduced to to save costs. However, this decision resulted in British Waterways receiving a number of complaints, and the Inland Waterways Association pledged £45,000 towards the extra cost for the longer locks. The Waterways Trust agree to match any funding provided by the Inland Waterways Association, and so the longer locks were reinstated at an additional cost of around £90,000. Because of the tidal nature of the lower Savick Brook, it was decided at the early stages of planning that the link would be designed for one way operation.
Much of the early engineering design work was carried out by the Babtie group, who had opened offices in Preston in the 1990s. The contract for the construction was awarded to the civil engineers Gleeson in November 2000, with Arup Water responsible for the detailed design. A partnership between British Waterways, Lancashire County Council, the Ribble Link Trust and The Waterways Trust were responsible for the management of the scheme. A separate company, The Ribble Link Construction and Operation Limited, was set up as a joint venture between the Ribble Link Trust and Lancashire County Council. Such a company was a requirement of the Millennium Commission, in order for them to release funds for the project. The Waterways Trust would be the owners of the new navigation, which would be built by Gleeson, with British Waterways acting as project managers. On completion, the navigation would be leased to British Waterways, who would then maintain it for 125 years. Just prior to work starting, the Ribble Link Construction and Operation company was handed over to the Waterways Trust, and all the original directors resigned. The Ribble Link Trust expressed disappointment at this, as they would no longer have any say in how the link was managed, despite having raised a lot of the funding for it, and been involved in its promotion for over 20 years.
Construction Ground clearance began in February and March 2001, with the intention of constructing the lower end of the navigation first, but an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in March resulted in the surrounding agricultural land being closed for access. The middle of the route was not affected by access restrictions, and work began at lock 5 in May 2001. Once the piling was completed, the contractors moved on to lock 4. Both locks were built on dry ground between the neck of a meander. The design involved driving four rows of interlocking steel piles into the ground, using a vibrating pile driver to minimise the noise nuisance associated with such work. The inner two rows would form the lock walls, while the outer two were tied to them by steel rods to provide anchorage. Earth was then excavated from between the inner pair to form the lock chamber. Construction of the staircase locks 1, 2 and 3 began soon afterwards. The foot-and-mouth restrictions were lifted in July 2001, and work on the lower section then began.
While the locks were being constructed, the channel was widened, and in some places sharp bends were eased to ensure that boats could negotiate the turns. Lock 6 had to be built on the line of the Brook, and so a bywash was created, to enable the brook to continue to flow while the work was carried out. Lock 7 was built close to a new footbridge which had been built by the Waterway Recovery Group some years previously. The most difficult lock to build was Lock 8, as the site was affected by tides, which flooded the works of several occasions. Spoil removed from the lock site and the adjacent channel was spread on land nearby, whereas spoil from most of the excavations was removed by lorry to wasteland close to Preston Docks. Upstream of the lock, a farm bridge was replaced with a new structure, imported from Italy. The corrugated steel panels were bolted together and the structure was then craned into position. Prolonged heavy rain in late August resulted in extensive flooding, causing significant damage to the newly built banks, which were washed into the channel. A second flood occurred in mid-September, and a third on 8 October, all of which resulted in work having to be re-done.