Anderton Company

Famous Fleets: NarrowBoat, Spring 2008

Alan Faulkner

Alan Faulkner on a leading Trent & Mersey carrier that had almost 200 narrowboats in its fleet

The Anderton Company came into being in 1836 when the old-established Trent & Mersey Canal carrier, Alexander Reid & Co, decided to change its name. The change came about due the increasing importance of its trade through Anderton on the River Weaver. In February 1829, Reid & Co had started a new service whereby materials needed for the growing pottery industry in Stoke-on-Trent began being transhipped from river flats onto narrowboats at Anderton for onward carriage to Stoke. The narrowboats returned with finished pottery products packed in crates that were transferred to the flats for carriage down the Weaver and across the River Mersey to Liverpool for export.At Anderton the courses of the River Weaver and the Trent & Mersey Canal run close together, albeit with a vertical difference of some 50ft separating them. This must have made the transhipment process somewhat labour intensive, but despite this it increased rapidly, competing very strongly with the established…