The Macclesfield Canal
The Macclesfield Canal was one of the last narrow canals to be built, indeed, it was very nearly built as a railway! A variety of ideas were proposed and the present canal was approved by Act of Parliament in April 1826. The route of the canal was surveyed by Thomas Telford and construction was engineered by William Crosley. The completed canal was opened on 9th November 1831 at a cost of £320,000.
The route takes the canal from Marple Junction with the Peak Forest Canal in the north 26¼ miles to the stop lock at Hall Green near Kidsgrove passing along the side of the most westerly Pennine hills through High Lane, Higher Poynton, Bollington, Macclesfield and Congleton, all in Cheshire, and Kidsgrove in Staffordshire in the south. Nowadays we normally regard the last 1½ miles to Harding's Wood Junction with the Trent & Mersey Canal as a part of the Macclesfield Canal although it was built as a branch of the T&MC.
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The Bridge
The Bollington Civic Society are the owners of the bridge and this
website
has information about its construction.
"One of the conditions laid down by the Macclesfield Borough Council Planning Committee for the development of apartments on the top two floors of Clarence Mill was that there had to be a '106 agreement'. This requires the developer to provide funds to the local council which will be spent on local environmental enhancement.
In the case of Clarence mill the 106 agreement specified a sum of about £30,000 to be used to provide a foot bridge across the canal at the southern end of the mill. This money was paid to the borough council who retained it pending construction of the bridge.
For the past many years, ever since planning permission was granted for the apartments, negotiations have been continuing with one party or another to bring about the construction of this bridge. It has been a very long and sorry saga with many setbacks. However, all of these problems are now behind us and the bridge is built and open for use.
Fund raising
The total sum raised was about £150,000. The bridge actually cost less than this, but money was also required for a maintenance dowry - that's why it seems such a lot. Various grants were obtained by the Civic Society thanks to the considerable efforts of Graham Barrow. Significant contributions were made by both Macclesfield Borough Council and Cheshire County Council - now amalgamated into Cheshire East Council.
Why are the Civic Society involved?
In reality every local body is involved. The canal is owned by British Waterways (BW). Cheshire East Council (CEC) and Bollington Town Council (BTC) both have an interest one way or another. However, none of these bodies are permitted to own such a structure. But there has to be an owner so it was decided that Bollington Civic Society should become the owner. This actually has benefits because we are a registered charity and that gives us access to funding which is not available to public authorities.
Bridge design
The bridge was designed under a contract let to CEC. Their bridge architect, Noel James, recommended a standard structure spanning 16m across the canal at the point where the ground rises on both sides. As well as steps, there are ramps on both sides enabling full access for wheeled pedestrian equipment such as pushchairs and wheelchairs. The bridge is constructed of steel mounted on Kerridge stone faced plinths. The deck is slightly curved reflecting the curve in the stone bridges over the canal.
The bridge spans both the water and the towpath so avoiding any problems of obstruction of the towpath for mooring boats or for the now rare horsedrawn boat."