Bridge 71 Over Macclesfield Canal - 1979 & 1892 - Congleton, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 09.852 W 002° 10.840
30U E 554776 N 5890850
This narrow metal footbridge over the Macclesfield Canal has a British Waterways Board plaque with a date of 1979 and rests on earlier stone supports.
Waymark Code: WMQKEB
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/27/2016
Views: 4
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 bridge across the canal is a modern steel construction with a date plaque attached to the side of the bridge dated 1979 indicating it was built by British Waterways Board at Newark.
The bridge is resting on stone abutments which were obviously constructed for an earlier bridge. Carved in one of these stones is the date AD92.
British Waterways Board
The British Waterways Board was initially established as a result of the Transport Act 1962 and took control of the inland waterways assets of the British Transport Commission in 1963. British Waterways was sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in England and Wales, and by the Scottish Government in Scotland.
British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotland and Wales.
On 2 July 2012 all of British Waterways' assets and responsibilities in England and Wales were transferred to the newly founded charity the Canal & River Trust. In Scotland British Waterways continues to operate as a standalone public corporation under the trading name Scottish Canals.
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