Grimshaw Lane Stone Aqueduct On Macclesfield Canal - Bollington, UK
Posted by: dtrebilc
N 53° 17.580 W 002° 06.406
30U E 559537 N 5905237
This single arch bridge carries the Macclesfield Canal over Grimshaw Lane.
Waymark Code: WMQFWE
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/23/2016
Views: 2
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.
link
The Bridge
This bridge is a Historic England Grade II Listed Building
link with the following text "Canal aqueduct: c1830 by William Crosley for the Macclesfield Canal Company. Hammer-dressed buff sandstone with ashlar dressings. Barrel vault with horseshoe shaped arches at either end with raised keystone. Chamfered coping turns and runs to ground level along the revetment walls ending in square piers. Above the western arch is an added rubble parapet with a now roofless single-storey building above with 4 openings to west and an entrance from the towpath. Along south west revetment wall a flight of steps has been added with a wall with rounded coping to each side. "
Since the bridge was listed the building on top of it has been repaired and now houses the canoes of the Macclesfield and District Canoe Club.