Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Peak Forest Canal joins at Dukinfield Junction
.
Ashton-under-Lyne was a small market town and, indeed, still has a thriving outdoor mar-
ket most days. With local coal and goods transport by canal and, subsequently, railway, it be-
came an important cotton centre. It saw the start of the Chartist action in 1842 when strikers
turned workers out of the mills.
The Peak Forest Canal also brought Macclesfield Canal traffic - coal and lime for industry,
building and farming - approaching across an aqueduct over the River Tame and under a
slender, stone towpath bridge for the Ashton Canal at Dukinfield Junction. The aqueduct was
built by the promoters of the Ashton Canal in readiness for the Peak Forest Canal.
Opposite the junction was built the New Ashton Warehouse in 1834, to serve the growing
number of mills on the west side of Ashton-under-Lyne. All but the ground floor was des-
troyed in a fire in 1972. The remains have been rebuilt as the Portland Basin industrial mu-
seum with a 1920s street. A prize possession outside is the 7.3m diameter breast shot water-
wheel, which was used to power the cast-iron hoists.
