Rochdale Canal Bridge 30a – Todmorden, Yorkshire, UK - Stone Bridges on Waymarking.com

The Canal History
The Rochdale canal is 32 miles long and connects Manchester on the west side of the Pennine Hills and Sowerby Bridge on the east side. The Rochdale Canal was completed in 1804 and is one of three canals that cross the Pennine hills. This is the only one that doesn’t use tunnels. In addition it was a broad canal with bridges and locks that allowed boats of 14 feet width to pass through.

The one downside of not using tunnels is that it originally had 92 locks. These days two of them have been combined into one deep lock.

Competition from railways and roads subsequently led to a decline in goods being carried and by 1937 the only section left in operation was at the Manchester end of the canal.

In 1965 there was talk of abandoning the canal but by this time leisure boating had become very popular in the UK and there was a campaign to keep it open. Work was started and the canal slowly re-opened in a number of different stages. The whole length finally reopened in September 2007.

All the locks on the canal have a standard length of 72 feet (22 metres).

Details of the bridge
After the canal was reopened all the locks and bridges retained their original numbers. The fact that this bridge is 30a indicates that it was built sometime after the original construction of the canal. It is situated between the original bridges 30 and 31 that were constructed in 1798.

The road leads to Dobroyd Castle built between 1866 and 1869. It was built as an extravagant mansion house by a successful local mill owner John Fielden. There is no access onto the bridge from the canal tow path.

At the time the bridge was built canal boats were still towed by horses. It is located on a slight bend in the canal and there are grooves cut in the stonework where the ropes rubbed against the bridge as the horses went round the bend.

The bridge has been widened at some point and the parapet on the southern side of the canal overhangs the original arch.

This bridge was made a Grade II listed building by English Heritage in 1984 before the canal was restored, reference number 1228547.

The listing states "Hammer-dressed stone. Single span horseshoe elliptical arch has rusticated voussoirs, band and parapet with cappings."

Physical Location (city, county, etc.): Todmorden Road, Highway, Street, etc.: Dobroyd Road Water or other terrain spanned: The Rochdale Canal Architect/Builder: Not listed Construction Date: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/15/2013 hulletteers visited it