When I journeyed up to Anderton in 1975 to view the extraordinary boat lift there I never imagined that, 40 years later I would be looking back on it from a new continental perspective. Back then I was simply fascinated by the English canal system as a long-forgotten but, at that time, slowly re-emerging transport network. Despite modest growth in pleasure cruising on the canals many were still badly neglected and something of an industrial backwater that was largely unknown, unvisited and unloved.
The Anderton lift, completed in 1875, was built to replace the inclined planes, chutes and cranes that were used for trans-shipping cargo between boats on the low-lying River Weaver to the Trent-Mersey Canal some 15 metres above, for transportation onwards. This original lift had been engineered by Edwin Clark who developed a design proposed by Edward Leader-Williams utilising twin water-filled caissons into which boats would enter to be lifted either up or down. Each caisson would sit atop a giant hydraulic ram whereby the - very considerable - weight of one caisson plus boat descending would push its partner caisson up thus requiring minimal extra power to operate it. 
When completed Clark's lift worked reasonably well for several years but, due partly to the increased traffic, the hydraulic pistons suffered from corrosion and required frequent maintenance, which in turn meant loss of important income for the owners. In 1904 they decided on a radical re-design. This was the Anderton lift that I beheld in 1975, converted to electrical operation in 1908 according to a design by Colonel JA Saner who was the trustees' chief engineer at the time. Saner did away with the hydraulic rams, using electric motors to raise and lower the caissons together with large weights to counterbalance them as they moved. He built a massive headframe above Clark's existing framework for the winding gear and supported the entire structure with the characteristic A-frames we see today. The re-design proved to be a very successful one as the lift worked remarkably reliably until 1983 when serious corrosion was found in Saner's superstructure and it had to be closed for safety reasons. In 2002, after extensive restoration work in which the lift was returned to its original hydraulic operation, it was re-opened and is now in active use again, almost entirely for recreational trips. 

Many years after the Anderton trip and now living in The Netherlands, I unexpectedly bumped into Edwin Clark again. Whilst researching the Canal du Centre in Belgium I was amazed to discover that Clark had played a major role in the construction of this navigation. The Belgians had long wanted to connect the coalmining area of the 'Borinage' near Mons to the Charleroi-Brussels Canal that ran from the River Sambre up to Brussels and Antwerp. The problem was, that for a substantial section between Thieu and La Louviere, a height of some 66 metres would have to be scaled, a climb that over the available distance could not be achieved with regular locks. Enter Edwin Clark in 1879 who, based on his experience at Anderton, proposed a set of four hydraulically operated boat lifts to do the job. Excavation work for the canal was started in 1882 and the first lift, Nr 1 at Houdeng-Goegnies near La Louviere, was completed in 1888. Disputes about the cost and relevancy of the project meant that the three remaining lifts were not completed until 1914, just before the outbreak of WW1, which in turn led to them only finally entering service after the war in 1919. Lift Nr 1 raised boats about 15 metres and the subsequent lifts at Houdeng-Aimeries (Nr 2), Bracquegnies (Nr 3) and Thieu (Nr 4) each had a reach of about 17 metres. The similarities with Clark's original Anderton lift are remarkable yet it seems he must have improved upon the design as the lifts were generally much more robust and reliable than their predecessor. They regularly handled up to 30 vessels a day and remained in use, albeit with gradually decreasing traffic, up until 2002. Then, as part of a long-term modernisation plan for the entire canal, the four lifts were finally replaced by a single vast new one on a specially built stretch of canal at Strepy-Thieu; at 73 meters this lift is claimed to have the greatest reach in the World.

  
When I visited them in 2015 I was amazed at how accessible the lifts were. The canal itself was remarkably quiet and peaceful and I was able to park easily nearby and walk undisturbed up to and over much of the superstructure of each lift. I felt priveleged to be able to quietly admire the intricate girderwork and massive machinery of these extraordinary, vast machines that have worked quietly away for so many years. At that time the lifts were being restored to their original state as part of their status as UNESCO World Heritage site and I believe that all four are now in regular use again, primarily for tourist and pleasure trips.