Manchester Docks - Salford Docks

Salford Docks are the western (downstream) block, made of four large docks running ENE from the canal, numbered 9,8,7 and 6, the latter three off a turning basin. They have now been redeveloped into Salford Quays.

• Dock 9 is the largest of the docks and was the site of the Manchester Liners container service to Montreal. Today the upper reaches contain cleaned water and have been cut off from their former connection to the ship canal . This cleaned water is accessed from Dock 8 via a new canal through Pier 8, while the lower section remains open to ship canal traffic. This dock was the last to be constructed, built on the former New Barnes site of Manchester Racecourse, and opened in the early years of the 20th Century.

• Dock 8 remains largely intact, although its entrance to the ship canal has been made considerably narrower. It is now accessed through a lock beneath a pedestrian drawbridge, which is used as a buffer to separate the cleaned water of Docks 7, 8 and 9 from the relatively untreated water of the ship canal. This is the only route into the redeveloped basins of Docks 9 and 7. The lock and drawbridge are mechanised and controlled from the Salford Quays Operations Tower.

• Dock 7 has been cut off from the ship canal and divided into a series of small basins, linking Piers 6 and 7 by road and pedestrian footbridges. The basins provide a habitat for wildlife and the introduced fish stock. Access is again from Dock 8, at its north eastern end.

• Dock 6 is retained in largely its original configuration.

The smaller basins into which the docks have been divided are all named after North American lakes, reflecting the area's strong trading links the docks had with North America.

Upstream of Dock 6 there is a triangular depression in the canal wall on a similar alignment to the other docks: this was originally a second navigable channel under a fixed road bridge. At the end of the 19th century the channel was infilled above the bridge and the remainder retained as a wharf. Later this arm was further truncated into the vestige seen today.

While Dock 9 was being built there were plans to construct a further dock (Dock 10) downstream of, and parallel to, Dock 9. Maps from 1921 still show the proposed dock, but it is omitted on later editions.