555 - Longport - Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK.
N 53° 02.736 W 002° 12.822
30U E 552712 N 5877632
A 555 cycle route sign located at footbridge Bridge 127 over the Trent and Mersey Canal at a footpath entrance to Westport Lake in Longport.
Waymark Code: WMZXJ9
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/19/2019
Views: 1
The cycle route is a part of the UK National Cycle Network. It is a network of safe, traffic-free paths and quiet on-road cycling and walking routes that criss-cross the country, linking up villages, towns and cities.
This 555 sign is located on a metal direction sign post located at the Trent and Mersey Canal tow path at Bridge 127 near a footpath entrance to Westport Lake at Longport. The route continues north toward Kidsgrove and south towards Etruria. (
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Westport Lake is located alongside the Trent & Mersey Canal. It is Stoke-on-Trent’s largest expanse of water and consists of two lakes, and a nature reserve. It’s one of the best places in the area for bird-watching and walking. It has come a long way since its initial development as a pleasure resort by a local farmer around 1890 then it descended into a wasteland until becoming one of Stoke's first regeneration projects in 1986. It is now run in partnership between Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and Stoke City Council." SOURCE: (
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The Trent and Mersey Canal is a 93.5-mile long canal (150.5 km) in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and north-west of England, from Shadlow to Preston Brook. The first sod was cut by Josiah Wedgwood in July 1766 near Bridge 128 at the northern end of Westport Lake in Stoke-on-Trent. The canal was completed in 1777 and included more than 70 locks and five tunnels, with the company headquarters in Stone. (
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The organisation called SUSTRANS was set up in Bristol in 1977. They had a vision to improve conditions for people walking and cycling.
By the 1990s cycling and walking routes had been built all over the country, mainly using disused railway paths and canal towpaths. In 1995, they campaigned and won the first ever grant from the Millennium Commission for £42.5 million to create a UK-wide network that linked the routes to provide high-quality, convenient routes for walking and cycling. The Network that exists today involves hundreds of partners. Source: (
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Route 555 can be found at the following link, by typing Longport, Stoke-on-Trent into the grey left hand search box above the map. (
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