Week 3. Macclesfield Canal & Peak Forest Canal.

Left our mooring early as we hoped to stop at Marple, restock the larder and complete the Marple flight of 16 locks. This would give us time to reach the Ashton Canal early in the afternoon.  That was the plan, but as our previous blogs have demonstrated plans don’t always works out.

Approaching Marple we passed Goyt Mill, one of the most impressive on the canal system, Built over 100 years ago it spun cotton imported through Manchester Docks and brought to the mill by canal. Spinning ceased in the 1960s.

Goyt Mill

Travelling north, the Macclesfield Canal terminates at the junction with Peak Forest Canal, we turned left at the junction and immediately started down the locks.  These locks proved to be extremely hard work as the paddle mechanism was not as easy to operate as one would wish. We were making good time until we reach the pound (the section of canal between two locks) between locks 9 and 10.  A work team from the Canal and River Trust were discussing a problem with the top gate of lock 9, and we were unable to enter the lock. The mechanism that allowed water into the lock had been dislodged and was obstructing the gate operation.  This was not good news as we were instructed to reverse back into the lock we had just exited and wait there until the pound had been drained and the mechanism repaired. The pound would then be refilled before we could proceed.

Full Pound

Empty Pound

The Repair

Bacchus waiting in lock 10.

The repair lost us 2 hours but we eventually passed through the bottom lock and immediately reached the Marple Aqueduct that carries the waterway almost a hundred feet across a steeply wooded ravine and the River Goyt. Running by the side of the aqueduct and even higher is a railway viaduct.

Marple Aqueduct.

Only managed a further 5 miles before calling it a day and still short of the Ashton canal.

Manchester and the Rochdale Canal next.