Mersey

Mersey, river, western England, rising at Stockport, and flowing south-west for 113 km (70 mi) to the Irish Sea at Liverpool. The estuary of the river can be navigated by ocean-going vessels which in the 18th century led to Liverpool becoming Britain's second most important port after London—a process that had begun when the Dee estuary, further south, began to silt up in the sixteenth. Tributaries of the Mersey include the Irwell and the Weaver. The Manchester Ship Canal joins the Mersey at Eastham. This enabled Manchester, an inland city, to become a major port in competition with Liverpool.