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 9
This is the ninth 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 12 feet 6 inches. Most of the locks in this set have a small stone footbridge built into the tail of the lock but this one is crossed by the busy main road that passes through the town of Marple. The lock is so close to the road that the lower lock gates actually hang over onto the pavement.
The lock is a National Heritage
Grade II Listed Building. The listing tells us that it was built between 1803 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 2002 and the top gates in 1999.
This lock marks the place where the canal passes from a built up environment to a rural setting. All the locks below here pass through fields, whilst this and the higher locks are within the town and flanked by houses and roads.
The tow path also switches sides at this point, above the bridge it is on the west side and below the east side.