GAS PIPE BRIDGE 1972

A puzzle picture, showing one of Middlewich's lesser known canal bridges. The year is 1972 and the houses in the background are in King Street. This bridge could easily be seen from the Town Bridge and carried neither people nor vehicles. So what is it and where was it?


Well, when this was originally posted on Facebook as a 'puzzle picture' (hence the original, enigmatic caption, above) Jonathan Williams immediately identified it as the strange structure which once brought Middlewich's supply of Town Gas from the gasworks across the Trent & Mersey Canal and River Croco to a spot behind the gas showroom and offices in Lower Street. Presumably this bridge was built because to put the pipe in a tunnel underneath the river and canal would have been too costly. You can see this kind of arrangement all over the place, but mostly in an industrial setting - there are bridges like this, for example, at Lostock Works.
I'm not sure what my idea was in photographing this from such an odd angle. Perhaps, all those years ago, I already had it in mind that it would one day make an interesting 'puzzle picture'.


More of the bridge can be glimpsed here: SEDDON'S YARD PEPPER STREET