Lock 15 On The Peak Forest Canal – Marple, UK - Waterway Locks, Planes and Lifts on Waymarking.com

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 15
This is the fifteenth 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 4 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.

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 2005 and the top gate in 2004.

This is one of the locks that are in the town of Marple itself rather than in nearby fields. As such it has houses close to the side of the lock.

Waterway Name: The Peak Forest Canal Connected Points: Links Dukinfield at the junction with the Ashton Canal and Buxworth Basin. There is also a junction with the Macclesfield Canal at Marple Bridge. Type: Lock Date Opened: 12/01/1805 Elevation Difference (meters): 4.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Logs marked as “visits” should be made after physically visiting the waymark location. Include a picture taken during the visit. Notes may be logged by individuals who have visited the web site or looked at the online information and would like to provide comments or feedback on the waymark.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   05/01/2015 ntpayne visited it