Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Lock Aqueduct to join the Macclesfield Canal, taking the Cheshire Ring and its walk north-
wards with it from Hardings Wood Junction. In the vicinity of the Tavern, the Blue Bell and
the former Albion Iron Works, the canal reaches its summit level of 111m for 9km. Origin-
ally, the summit level fluctuated considerably depending on the amount of pumping from the
Harecastle mines. Thus, the stop lock at the end of the Hall Green Branch was fitted with
gates facing both ways as the Hall Green Branch level could be either higher or lower than
the Trent & Mersey summit level, although officially slightly higher. The Hall Green Branch
is now permanently higher and one set of stop gates has been removed.
The canal moves from Staffordshire to the City of Stoke-on-Trent. The city was formed
in 1910 from the Five Towns of Stoke (Bennett's Knype), Tunstall (Turnhill), Burslem
(Bursley), Hanley (Hanbridge), Fenton and Longton - presumably mathematics was not the
greatest attribute of the area… The Potteries take their other collective name from the fact
that this is the UK's fine china capital and the canal follows where the Etruria marls meet the
coal measures, both needed for the pottery industry. Pottery has been made here since 1700
BC. Most of the brick bottle kilns have now gone. Arnold Bennett, who was born in Hanley,
based
Anna of the Five Towns
and
Clayhanger
in the Potteries, the latter title beginning with
a description of the canal, which he called the Knype & Mersey Canal. Minton, Moorcroft,
Royal Doulton (who began in Lambeth), John Beswick, Coalport and Wedgwood are or have
been among the manufacturers based here - Josiah Wedgewood having been born in Burslem
- although there has been a recent history of mergers, closures and transfer of production to
the Far East.
The northern end of Telford's new bore for Hardcastle Tunnel with Brindley's original bore to the
right
.
An attraction of the location was the ability to move porcelain by canal without the break-
ages that resulted from road transport.
At Tunstall the A500 runs parallel to the canal and the railway and is to follow for 10km.
Attempts have been made to improve the canal environment, including the erection of dis-
tinctive metal information signs. The 10ha Westport Lake is a metre deep and was Port Vale
