The Macclesfield Canal is a canal in Cheshire East, England. There were various proposals for a canal to connect the town of Macclesfield to the national network from 1765 onwards, but it was not until 1824 that a scheme came to fruition. There were already suggestions by that date that a railway would be better, but the committee that had been formed elected for a canal and the engineer Thomas Telford endorsed the decision. The canal as built was a typical Telford canal, constructed using cut and fill, with numerous cuttings and embankments to enable it to follow as straight a course as possible, although Telford had little to do with its construction, which was managed by William Crosley.
The canal opened in 1831 and is long. All of its twelve locks are concentrated in a single flight at Bosley, which alters the level by . The canal runs from a junction with the Peak Forest Canal at Marple in the north, in a generally southerly direction, through the towns of Macclesfield and Congleton, to an end-on junction with the Hall Green Branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal. There is a stop lock at the junction, which drops the level by , and the branch runs for another to Hardings Wood Junction, where it joins the Trent and Mersey main line. This short branch is usually considered to be part of the Macclesfield Canal in modern literature.
Faced with growing threats from railways and the fact that the Trent and Mersey was proposing to merge with a railway company, the management did all they could to cut costs. In 1846, they reached an agreement to sell the canal to a railway company, which became the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway soon afterwards. Under railway ownership, the canal fared better than many and commercial carrying continued until 1954. There had been some leisure use of the canal since the end of the First World War and the North Cheshire Cruising Club, formed in 1943 and based at the High Lane arm, became the first such cruising club on the British inland waterways. There were dangers that the northern end would be isolated under plans to close the Ashton Canal and the lower Peak Forest Canal in the early 1960s, but vigorous campaigning and a growing restoration movement resulted in the Transport Act 1968, which secured the future of those canals. The designation of the canal as part of the Cheshire Ring in 1965 was part of the strategy by the Inland Waterways Association to promote the leisure potential of canals.
The whole canal was designated as a Conservation Area by Macclesfield Borough Council in 1975 and a large number of its structures have been Grade II listed in recognition of their historic importance. This includes a number of elegant roving bridges, which are known locally as snake bridges. Much of the canal is rural, passing through open countryside, and there are a number of impressive embankments and aqueducts, where the canal crosses river valleys. In the centres of population, there are several large mills that were once served by the canal but are now repurposed as small industrial units or apartments.
Route
The canal runs for in a generally north to south direction from Marple Junction at Marple, where it joins the Upper Peak Forest Canal, to a junction with the Hall Green Branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal at Hall Green stop lock. The canal runs along the edge of a tall ridge of hills, to the west of the Pennines, and was built using Telford's "cut and fill" approach, following as straight a course as possible, with many cuttings and embankments constructed to achieve this, rather than the earlier approach of following the contours. It is a narrow canal, designed for boats with a maximum length of and a width of .
It joins the Peak Forest Canal on the eastern edge of Marple, at the top of a flight of 16 locks that raise the lower Peak Forest by to join the upper section. There was once a Stop Lock at Marple, although both canals were built to the same level, and the lock was provided only for cases where water shortages might have resulted in a temporary difference. The lock has long been de-gated, having become unnecessary once the Macclesfield and Peak Forest canals came into common ownership. The site of the lock remains as a narrows just in front of the junction bridge, and is overlooked by a canal warehouse with two storeys, built in 1835. It has a rectangular plan, and includes an internal waterway.
As the canal reaches Hawk Green, just to the south of Marple, a huge mill with six storeys is situated on the east bank. Goyt Mill was built in 1905, and now houses over 50 small businesses. At High Lane, the canal passes through the centre of the village, and the High Lane Branch, which is used as moorings for the North Cheshire Cruising Club, is to the west of the canal. A tall aqueduct carries the canal over a railway line, and beyond it is a large embankment. The next section is isolated and rural, with the canal following the contours, but the route crosses a number of valleys where there are embankments and aqueducts. Near Higher Poynton, the canal is wider, as it has suffered from subsidence from a nearby coal mine, which resulted in the banks and bridges being raised on several occasions. The Peak District Boundary Walk runs along the towpath for about 1 mile near Lyme View Marina.
On the outskirts of Bollington, the canal passes Clarence Mill, another huge building which now houses small industrial units. Two aqueducts and a embankment carry the canal over the valley of the River Dean and into Bollington. Adelphi Mill is on the west bank at the southern edge of Bollington, and was once a silk mill. It has been converted for use as offices. After another rural section, the canal enters Macclesfield. Hovis Mill, where the famous flour was originally milled, is on the west bank. It was built in the 1820s, and has been converted into apartments. A branch of the canal formerly led into the complex, but only its blocked up entrance remains. Near Gurnett Aqueduct, which carries the canal over the road to Gurnett and the River Bollin, is a cottage with a plaque to commemorate the civil engineer and canal builder James Brindley. He served an apprenticeship to Abraham Bennett between 1733 and 1740 there.
Beyond, the canal resumes its rural course as it follows the contours towards Bosley Lock Flight. To the east is Sutton Reservoir, which draws its water supply from springs to the east, and holds some of water to supply the canal. It provides opportunities for walking and picnicking. Just before the first lock is a short branch to the east, which gives access to facilities for boaters. It is actually the widened end of the feeder from Bosley Reservoir, the first to be built to supply the canal, which is located some distance to the south east. The top lock is from the Peak Forest Canal. The twelve locks of the flight drop the level of the canal by , and they are squeezed together in around . Whereas narrow locks on most canals have a single gate at the upper end, these all have twin mitred gates at both ends. Below the bottom lock, a fine aqueduct carries the canal over the River Dane.
The canal heads towards the west before turning to the south again at Buglawton. In Congleton, it crosses the Dane in Shaw Brook, from which a good view of the tall viaduct that carries the railway across the valley can be had. A branch line formerly passed under an aqueduct, beyond which the canal runs along the top of a large embankment. To the east is The Cloud, a large hill over high with ancient earthworks at the top. In Congleton the canal passes over an aqueduct designed by Thomas Telford. South of Congleton, the canal passes through open countryside in a fairly straight course, to reach Scholar Green and the hamlet of Hall Green, where a stop lock indicates the official junction with the Trent and Mersey Hall Green Branch. The branch continues for another , crossing over the Trent and Mersey main line, and then turning to the east, to join the main line at Hardings Wood Junction near Kidsgrove, after lock 41 and before the Harecastle Tunnel. Since both canals have been in common ownership, this final section is often treated as part of the Macclesfield Canal, and the numbering of bridges 94 to 98, which are all on the Trent and Mersey section, follows on from bridge 93, the final bridge on the Macclesfield Canal.
The canal forms part of the Cheshire Ring cruising route. This term was first used by the Inland Waterways Association in 1965, when they initiated a campaign to ensure that all of the waterways that comprised the Peak Forest circular route should be retained. It was in response to the threat of complete closure of the Rochdale Canal, of which just a mile (1.6 km) is used to complete the circuit. At the launch of the campaign in July 1965, it was called the Cheshire Canal Ring, but the word "canal" had been dropped by November. The route comprises the Macclesfield Canal, the Hall Green Branch, parts of the Trent and Mersey Canal, the Bridgwater Canal and the Rochdale Canal, all of the Ashton Canal and part of the Peak Forest Canal. There are 92 locks on the ring, which is around long, and it can reasonably be completed in a week.
History There were a number of early proposals to link Macclesfield to the canal network. The first was in 1765, when a link to Congleton to the south, and Northwich to the west was proposed. A writer in the Derby Mercury newspaper in 1793 suggested a link from the Caldon Branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal to Macclesfield wia Leek. Two years later, a canal from Poynton Collieries via Macclesfield to the Trent and Mersey at Lawton, with a branch via Leek to the Caldon Branch was proposed.
A rather more serious proposal was made in 1796, when gentlemen from Congleton, Leek, Macclesfield, Manchester, Stockport and the West Riding employed the engineer Benjamin Outram to survey possible routes. Outram was working on the Peak Forest Canal at the time. At a meeting in Macclesfield, held on 11 March 1796, his proposals for a canal from the Peak Forest via Rudyard to Endon on the Caldon Branch, with a separate branch or railway from Poynton and Norbury to Stockport were welcomed. However, there were dissenters, with some arguing that there was no guarantee that the Peak Forest Canal would succeed, and the Trent and Mersey Canal already had plans to build a branch from their Caldon Branch to Leek. The cost was estimated to be £90,000, and there was not enough financial support, now that the initial rush for building canals, known as Canal Mania, had ended.
In 1799, the Peak Forest Canal included clauses for a branch to the collieries at Poynton and Norbury in an act of Parliament they were trying to obtain, but those clauses were deleted during the parliamentary process. In 1805 and 1806, they attempted to find the original papers from Outram's surveys, and hoped that the Trent and Mersey might support their proposal for a canal from Marple to Lawton, via Macclesfield. There was another proposal in 1810, and various half-hearted attempts to revive the idea between 1814 and 1818, but none came to fruition. In 1824, the Cromford and High Peak Railway, a bold scheme to link the Cromford Canal and the Peak Forest Canal, was being planned, but a suggestion to build a branch of the railway to serve Macclesfield was deferred, as there was nobody from Macclesfield at the meeting. A proposal for a canal from Church Lawton to the Bridgewater Canal near Manchester, passing through Congleton, Macclesfield, and Stockport, was also made, but it was thought that there would be difficulties dealing with the Trent and Mersey Canal at one end and the Trustees of the Duke of Bridgwater at the other.