River Medlock
| River Medlock | |
| River | |
 River Medlock running under Oxford Road/Oxford Street, Manchester
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|
| Country | England |
|---|---|
| Source | |
| - location | between Oldham and Saddleworth, Pennines |
| Mouth | |
| - location | River Irwell |
| - coordinates | 53°28′26.67″N 2°15′12.31″W / 53.4740750°N 2.2534194°WCoordinates: 53°28′26.67″N 2°15′12.31″W / 53.4740750°N 2.2534194°W |
The River Medlock is a river in Greater Manchester in North West England. It rises near Oldham and flows south and west for ten miles to join the River Irwell in the extreme southwest of Manchester city centre.
Rising in the hills that surround Strinesdale just to the east of Oldham, the Medlock flows through the steep-sided wooded gorge that separates Lees from Ashton-under-Lyne and the Daisy Nook Country Park with its 19th-century aqueduct carrying the disused Hollinwood Branch Canal over the shallow river.
The final miles of the river flowing to the River Irwell have been extensively modified. The river is culverted underneath the car park of the City of Manchester Stadium (the site of a former gasworks). It is visible under a bridge on Baring Street, close to Piccadilly Station, before running again in a culvert beneath the former UMIST campus (London Road (A6) to Princess Street), then under Hulme Street, until it appears briefly at Gloucester Street before flowing under the former gasworks at Gaythorn, reappearing at City Road East. At the point where Deansgate and Chester Road (A56) meet (under the Bridgewater Viaduct) the river meets the Bridgewater Canal head on, where a sluice gate (a listed structure) allowed water to feed the canal, until the water quality of the Medlock became too polluted for canal use. Normally the level of the river is several feet below the level of the canal, and the river is carried in a tunnel under the Castlefield canal basin, reappearing at Potato Wharf, where it is supplemented by excess canal water draining into a circular weir. When the river is in spate the tunnel cannot cope and river water enters the canal, flows across the basin, and exits via the weir and manually operated gates. A quarter of a mile further on the Medlock enters the Irwell adjacent to the bottom gate of the disused Hulme Locks.
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Wikipedia