The River Mersey
Matthew Gardner
Features
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70 miles long (113 km)
3 miles at widest point (5 km)
Source Stockport
Tributaries River Tame, River Goyt, River
Etherow
• Flows through Stockport, Didsbury, Northenden,
Stretford, Urmston, Flixton, Irlam, Manchester
Ship Canal and into the sea at Liverpool
• Two car tunnels, and one train tunnel go under
the Mersey
Importance/Usage
• Good departure point for USA
• Was very important in slave trade
• Manchester Ship Canal (1894) allowed big ships
to get to Manchester
• 1960-1971 ships carried 1,236,000 tonnes oil,
over 2.5 million tonnes of grain and animal food
452,000 tonnes of wood per year
• Important for wild life
• They are still considering making an electricity
barrage
Changes in the River
• The River has the 4th biggest tide in the world and 2nd in
the UK
• At neap tide it is four metres and at spring tide ten
metres high
• Lots of chemicals entered the water from textile
factories, polluted the River and all the fish died
• It took a long time to clean up the mess
• The Mersey is one of the most improved rivers in the
country with wild life returning
• It was cleaned up in the 1980s and is now a popular
tourist attraction
Fabulous Facts
• There are lots of famous songs about the Mersey
including “Ferry cross the Mersey” (Gerry and the
Pacemakers)
• In the ’60s, Liverpool bands such as the Beatles and
others played music known as “Mersey Beat”
• In London there was no such thing as the “Thames Beat”
• Hindi communities in the North West pray to the River
Mersey as it is the biggest river around, like the Ganges
• The name Mersey is Anglo-Saxon for boundary because
it separates Lancashire from Cheshire