Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
While the upper Peak Forest Canal has always been kept open, the lower section was aban-
doned in 1944 and reopened only in 1974.
Conveniently, all 16 locks on the Peak Forest Canal are in a single flight at Marple, which
some consider to be the most agreeable urban flight in England. It was not completed until
1804, a tramway being used up and down the hill for the first four years of the canal's life.
For nearly a century from 1840 onwards, narrowboats were built and repaired at the top of
the flight. The dry dock these days acts as an interesting sunken flower garden.
A road separates the locks from the onlooking row of houses on the left. On the right,
long side ponds run out along the contours with modern houses between each one. After the
fourth lock, Possett Bridge is a particularly fine structure, carrying the road across. It has a
horseshoe-shaped arch on the left for tow horses and this leads out on to a paved area, sur-
rounded by flowerbeds. There are interesting buildings all around the flight, from offices in
the 1805 Oldknow's cotton warehouse to the quaint Brabyns No. 1 Cottage. The flight des-
cends further through tree-covered fields, overlooking Brabyns Park. Three-quarters of the
way down, the railway tunnels under the flight, seeming not to be deep enough to clear the
bottom of a lock, especially as some locks here are close contenders for the title of deepest
narrow canal lock. The locks are also unusual in having stone-arched bridges across their
lower ends. Uphill walls are curved so that a boater, pushing the balance beam to open the
gate, walks round from the side of the lock on to the bridge. The balance beams then prevent
the bridge being used easily with the bottom gates open.
Almost immediately comes the magnificent Grade I Marple Aqueduct of 1801, its massive
proportions only overshadowed by the nearby railway viaduct. The three arches of the aque-
duct, designed with circular piercings through the piers below the trough, consumed 600m
3
of masonry in their construction. It was repaired after a partial collapse. The water level is
well over 30m from the River Goyt below, Britain's highest stone aqueduct with circular
holes in the spandrels between the three 18m spans, supported on cylindrical piers.
Rose Hill cutting is equally narrow, with a high retaining wall on the right. Its unusual
shape results from the fact that it began life as a 100m long tunnel, not being opened out until
1820.
