Bridge 100 On The Huddersfield Narrow Canal – Stalybridge, UK - Made for the Millennium on Waymarking.com

This canal is one of three that crosses the Pennine Hills and built to provide transport between Huddersfield in Yorkshire and Ashton-Under-Lyne in Lancashire.

Work started on it in 1794 and partly due to the need to construct the longest canal tunnel in the United Kingdom it was completed 17 years later in 1811.

Although in the early days the canal was profitable, competition from railways and roads meant that it had closed by 1944.

During the 1970s leisure boating in the U.K. had become popular and there were various campaigns to re-open canals that had lain derelict for a number of years.

Work on restoring this canal started in 1981 and was completed in 2001. In urban settings such as the centre of the town of Stalybridge parts of the canal had been totally filled in and built over. A number of bridges in both Stalybridge and Slaithwaite were rebuilt using funding from the Millennium Commission Lottery Fund.

This bridge, the 100th from the start of the canal at Huddersfield was one of these bridges. It is next to the bottom gates on lock 6W in Armentieres Square. The new bridge was made wide enough to also cover the towpath. This part of the canal had been totally filled in and a car park placed on top of it. As well as re-opening this bridge and lock 6W next to it, the square was landscaped to provide an amenity for the town.

This Pennine Waterways Website shows the extensive engineering works carried out on the bridge.

The keystone on each side of the bridge has the year 2000 carved into it and on the east wall of the bridge is a lottery commission plaque. On the same wall is a blue plaque indicating the bridge was re-opened on 28th May 2001 by The Rt. Hon. Lord Pendry of Stalybridge, Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde 1970 – 2001.

The west side of the bridge has another blue plaque indicating that it was opened on 28th May 2001 by Councillor S.R. Oldham C.B.E. Executive Leader of Tameside Council and that the bridge is named Oldham’ s Bridge in his honour.

This Pennine Waterways Website shows pictures of the opening ceremony of the bridges and canal in Stalybridge. It includes pictures of the people honoured on the plaques.

Related web site: [Web Link] Can you tell us who created the item: British Waterways Condition of the item: Great So what did YOU do for the millennium?: Attended a party

Visit Instructions:
To record a visit to a Millennium Waymark, please:

Take a photo of the item during your visit.

Describe your visit and what you thought about the item.

Please also mention what you personally did to mark the new Millennium. Was it a night to remember?

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