Cantilever Jib Crane - Buxworth, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 20.105 W 001° 58.085
30U E 568713 N 5910042
This sign tells the story of a cantilever jib crane at Bugsworth basin, one of the largest inland canal ports in the UK and the only complete example of a canal and tramway terminus.
Waymark Code: WMKYD1
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/14/2014
Views: 1
The sign is attached to a wooden replica support post from a jib crane which was used to load stone that had been brought down from nearby quarries on wagons on the Peak Forest tramway onto canal boats.
It is a metal plate with a raised lettering
The text of the sign below a picture of the complete jib crane.
Cantilever Jib Crane
This post is a replica of the one which formenrley supported a crane
used for loading stone brought down the Peak Forest Tramway from
Crist and Barton Clogh Quarries onto narrowboats.
The post was made from elm and the crane jib and support arms
from pitch pine. The safe working load of the crane was 5 tons.
A rich vein of stone, discovered at Crist in 1794 during the
construction of the Peak Forest Tramway, was found to have a
coarse grit giving excellent slip resistant properties and making it
ideal for use as setts and flagstones.
During the working life of the quarries (1796 to 1924) many
thousands of tons of setts and flagstones and building stone were loaded
at Bugsworth and transported by canal to the rapidly expanding
industrial areas of the North West and beyond.
Replica post commissioned by
The Inland Waterways Protection Society Ltd
Supplied and installed by
Calderdale Council, Rochdale Canal Workshop
Funded by National Lottery Awards for All grant.
Bugsworth Basin
The 18th Century had seen the development of the canal network in the UK to carry heavy goods, and led to towns such as Manchester become the first large industrial towns.
There was a demand for limestone and grit stone from the nearby quarries to be transported to Manchester and beyond and so the Peak Forest Canal was built with a connection to the Ashton Canal at Ashton-Under-Lyne.
The canal had a series of 16 locks to lift the canal a height of 209 feet from Ashton-Under-Lyne to this point, but the final rise to the quarries was to high for a canal. So a horse drawn tramway was built to form a connection between the canal junction here and the quarries themselves.
Much of the output from the quarries was loaded directly onto the canal boats but there was also a total of 19 lime kilns on this site to process the limestone into quick lime.
The wagons from the tramway took the limestone at a high level to the top of the kilns. After processing the processed quick lime was extracted from the bottom of the kiln and loaded onto the canal boats. A model of the site and information panel on the other side of the canal describe the operation of the site.
The site operated between 1796 until the 1920s. The canal and this basin was closed down and allowed to become derelict. However in the 1960s and 1970s leisure boating became popular and many canals were renovated and re-opened for leisure purposes.
Most of the Peak Forest Canal reopened 1974 and at that time terminated at Whaley Bridge. The remainder of the canal and this basin was reopened in 1999. However a major leak from the canal needed further renovation and it didn’t fully re-open until 2003. Much of the tramway has also been converted into a walking trail.
The basin is now protected as
Scheduled Ancient Monument number 242 under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
It should be noted that the name of the nearby village changes its name from Bugsworth to Buxworth in 1930, but the basin continues to be called Bugsworth basin.