Reopening of Rochdale Canal - Summit, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 39.948 W 002° 04.886
30U E 560691 N 5946731
This plaque on the gate of lock 37 of the Rochdale Canal commemorates the re-opening of the Rochdale Canal.
Waymark Code: WMPW43
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/28/2015
Views: 1
The Canal History
The Rochdale Canal was completed in 1804 and is one of three canals that cross the Pennine hills. This is the only one that doesn’t use tunnels. In addition it was a broad canal with bridges and locks that allowed boats of 14 feet width to pass through.
The one downside of not using tunnels is that it originally had 92 locks. These days two of them have been combined into one deep lock.
Competition from railways and roads subsequently led to a decline in goods being carried and by 1937 the only section left in operation was at the Manchester end of the canal.
In 1965 there was talk of abandoning the canal but by this time leisure boating had become very popular in the UK and there was a campaign to keep it open. Work was started and the canal slowly re-opened in a number of different stages. The whole length finally reopened for navigation on 1 July 2002.
The plaque
The plaque commemorates a reopening ceremony for the canal in 2003 by Rt. Hon Michael Meacher MP Environment Minister.
The Rochdale Canal Restoration
Officially re-opened on 28 March 2003 by
Rt. Hon Michael Meacher MP Environment Minister
following a £25 million restoration
Rochdale Canal Restoration managed by
British Waterways on behalf of The Waterways Trust
Restoration funded by
The Millennium Commission, Northwest Development Agency,
Oldham Metropoloitan Borough Council and Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council.
A commitment to future funding has been given by Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council,
Manchester City Council, Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council,
and Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council.
| The Rochdale Canal was completed in 1804 |
15.5 miles have been restored |
| It is 33 miles long and has 91 broad locks |
24 locks have been refurbished |
| The canal climbs 900ft across the Pennines |
12 new road bridges have been built |
Rt. Hon Michael Meacher MP
Sadly Michael Meacher died recently on the 20th October 2015.
The following is an extract from this
website
"Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 20 October 2015) was a British academic and Labour Party politician. Before entering politics he was a lecturer in social administration at the University of Essex and the University of York. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 until his death, first for Oldham West and then, from 1997, Oldham West and Royton.
Meacher was first elected to Parliament in 1970 for Oldham West, reversing his previous defeat, and served as a junior minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan (Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Industry, 1974–75; Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Security, 1975–79). During Labour's time in opposition he was in the Shadow Cabinet for fourteen years, and concurrently lectured at the LSE. He was seen as a figure on the left and an ally of Tony Benn, and stood as the left's candidate against Roy Hattersley in the 1983 deputy leadership election.
Meacher was an elected member of the Shadow Cabinet from 1983 to 1997, but Tony Blair refused to appoint him to the Cabinet and instead made him Minister of State for the Environment, first at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997–2001), then at the renamed Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2001–2003). Despite Blair's hostility, Meacher gained a reputation for being a politician who was on top of a complex brief and was one of the longest-serving ministers in the same job in the Labour government, from 1997 to 2003."