Stone Bridge 1 On The Macclesfield Canal – Marple, UK
Posted by: dtrebilc
N 53° 23.553 W 002° 03.571
30U E 562541 N 5916351
This roving bridge carries a road and canal tow path over the End of the Macclesfield Canal at its junction with The Peak Forest Canal.
Waymark Code: WMKQR0
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/18/2014
Views: 1
The Peak Forest & Macclesfield Canals
The Peak Forest Canal was built between 1794 and 1805 to transport limestone. It connected the Ashton Canal at Dukinfield with Buxworth where limestone was delivered to the canal boats by a tramway from a quarry on hillsides above Buxworth.
In 1831 the Macclesfield Canal was built to connect the Peak Forest Canal at Marple with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove.
The bridge
At the end of the Macclesfield Canal where it connected to the Peak Forest Canal this bridge was built to carry Suttons Lane over the end of the new Macclesfield canal.
The bridge also carries the tow path that connected the two canals together. At the time of construction canal boats were towed by horses and part of the bridge includes a spiral ramp. This allowed horses to carry on towing the boats whilst crossing the bridge and without the need to disconnect the rope. The spiral ramp is on the western side of the canal, whilst a simple straight ramp led to the canal tow path on the eastern side.
The bridge became an English Heritage Grade II
listed building on the 20th December 1967.