Rochdale Canal Bridge 31 – Gauxholme, 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.

Details of the bridge
The co-ordinates for the bridge were taken on the tow path to the north side of the canal. There is no access to the bridge from that side, but there is from the south side.

Immediately to the south of the bridge is a lock that has old wharves and buildings where goods could be loaded and unloaded.

The road over the bridge provided excellent transport links to move the goods to and from the bridge.

The bridge originally had a single span arch, but at some stage was widened for modern road traffic. The new part of the road is carried by a concrete platform.

At some point the old part of the bridge has been strengthened with metal beams above the arch.

Physical Location (city, county, etc.): Gauxholme Road, Highway, Street, etc.: Bacup Road (A681) Water or other terrain spanned: The Rochdale Canal Architect/Builder: Jessop and Crossley engineers Construction Date: 1/1/1798

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