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I occasionally use the toll bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal on the B5159 at Warburton, and duly pay my toll each time. However I was told by a local in a pub in nearby Lymm last night that the toll is in fact not payable for crossing the bridge over the canal, but in fact for using the bridge which crosses the old course of the river (Mersey??).
You can see the old river course on this aerial photo/map:
I admit it's pretty difficult to tell on the map/aerial photo at the scale, but it can'be very big.
No it's very small indeed, just long enough to go over the old river course. I guess there was no need for ships to pass under it either, so it's pretty much level with the road too.
Paul wrote:But the smaller bridge doesn't go over anything, unless a dried-up former course of a river counts as something!
Yes, but the Ship Canal Company will have built the high level bridge when the canal was built, whereas the bridge (and previous bridges on that site) will go back centuries.