The Peak Forest Canal
It is a narrow canal and is fourteen miles long and connects Buxworth with Dukinfiled where it joins the Ashton Canal. The sixteen locks near the town of Marple raise the canal a height of 210 feet in a distance of 1 mile. During construction funds ran low and there was not enough money available to fund the locks. A temporary tram road was built in place of the locks which allowed the canal to open but meant that goods had to be transhipped between the canal and the tram road.
In 1831 The Macclesfield Canal was opened and has a junction with the Peak Forest Canal near to its highest lock. This completed, the
Cheshire Ring, a set of canals that can be navigated as a complete circle, although junctions with other canals give access to a much large network of interconnected canals.
The locks were finally completed in 1805, and at the time were the second deepest locks in the UK. These days they are the 11th deepest locks in the UK.
The advent of the railways and later modern roads led to the decline of the canal and it fell into disuse between 1920 and 1960. An upsurge in leisure boat use led to the canal being restored and reopened in 1974. Further restoration led to the historical basin at Buxworth reopening in 2003.
Lock 2
This is the second lowest lock of the 16 on the canal and like all the locks on the canal it is designed to carry boats with a maximum length of 72 feet and a width of 7 feet. The bottom gates of each lock are a double set, whilst there is a single gate at the top end.
This particular lock has a
depth of 13 feet 0 inches and there is a small stone access foot bridge built into the tail of the lock next to the bottom gate. The footbridge gives boat users access to both sides of the canal to operate the gates.
At the time the pictures were taken the lock gates were being repainted and the arms still had a grey undercoat rather than the traditional black.
The lock is a National Heritage
Grade II Listed Building. The listing tells us that it was built between1803 and 1805. Benjamin Outram and Thomas Brown were the engineers, financed by S. Oldknow and R. Arkwright and built by James and Fox.
There is an annual rolling maintenance program on UK canals and a number of locks are repaired. There is a date marker on the lower gates showing they were replaced in 1998.
On many locks there are warning signs about making sure the boat does not get caught on the cill.
It's not always obvious what this means, but basically the wooden lock gate does not go to the bottom of the lock but sits on a stone base. When the lock is full and a boat is going down, the cill is not visible. This means that when the water is released from the lock it is possible for the boat to get caught on the cill.
This lock was at its lowest when I took the pictures and the cill is clearly visible. When the cill is visible it's much easier to understand the hidden danger.