A clean-up of Manchester’s canal system found 61 mobile phones, a microwave oven – and a relic of the city’s brewing heritage.

Council chiefs discovered a range of modern gadgets as they carried out the annual trawl of the Rochdale canal in the city centre.

But they also found that tossing litter into the waterway is anything but a modern problem.

One of the items recovered was an old bottle of Wilson’s brown ale, which was thrown into the canal more than half a century ago.

The bottle dates back to the 1950s and was produced at the Wilson’s brewery in Newton Heath, just a couple of
miles away from where it was found. Wilson’s and Co brewery, on Monsall Road, closed in 1987 after brewing beer for 150 years.

The Rochdale canal, which joins the Bridgewater canal at Castlefield Basin, famously featured in the Boddington’s ‘Cream of Manchester’ advert where an actress was seen supping a pint while reclining in a Venetian gondola – to the soundtrack of O Sole Mio song.

Among the other items recovered from the canal were five bikes and two truck-loads of tables and chairs.

City centre spokesman Coun Pat Karney, who took part in the clear up, said the level of fly-tipping was mind-boggling. He said: “People who barge up and down the canals are put in danger because of the damage all the debris in this underwater tip can do to barges and boats.

“We have CCTV in key areas such as Canal Street and I will look at banning anyone caught fly-tipping from the city centre with an exclusion order.”