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Giant's
Basin
 The Giant's Basin
is a 7 metre wide - 7 metre deep stone weir that
carries the overflow from the Bridgewater Canal
into the River Medlock. It was designed by
James Brindley, the engineer who built the
Bridgewater Canal. It apparently replaced a
huge clover-leaf weir that became problematic when
it was subject to flooding.
The River Medlock meanders across the fringes of the city centre and meets the Bridgewater Canal head-on in Knott Mill near Deansgate. At the junction there is a tippler weir which sends the excess water down into a tunnel.  The tunnel carries
the Medock under the Castlefield Canal Basin, then
returns it to the surface just beyond Potato
Wharf. In the image below you see the
Medlock exiting the tunnel on the left and the
Bridgewater Canal overflow, from the Giant's
Basin, flowing out on the right.
 From here the
Medlock heads off towards its confluence with
the Irwell.
  The Giant's
Basin, a wonderful relic of the age of canals,
sits surrounded by new developments with the
Castlefield Youth Hostel, the Vision's Centre
and the Potato Wharf apartments as its new
neighbours.
   The site was
quite different when it was first
constructed. Below you can see the
location on a map dated 1845.
 In the
aerial photograph below taken in 1953, you
see the site before its redevelopment.
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