Rochdale Canal
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The Rochdale Canal is a navigable "broad" canal in the North of England, part of the connected system of the Canals of the United Kingdom. The "Rochdale" in its name refers to the town of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, through which the canal passes.
The "Rochdale" is a Broad canal because its bridges and 92 locks are wide enough to allow vessels of 14ft width. Its canal runs for 32 miles (51 kilometres) across the Pennines from the Bridgewater Canal at Castlefield Basin in Manchester to the Hebble Navigation at Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire.
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[edit] History
The canal gained its act of parliament at its second attempt in 1794 and was completed in 1804. Because of its width, it was more successful than the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, but soon faced competition from the Manchester and Leeds Railway (1841). By cutting tolls the canal managed to maintain business and for a time remained profitable but by the start of the 20th century it was in trouble. In 1923 the canal's reservoirs were sold off. Most of the canal (apart from a short profitable section in Manchester linking the Bridgewater and Ashton Canals) was closed in 1952 (the last complete journey having taken place in 1937) and by the mid '60s the remainder was almost unusable.
With the growth in leisure boating, a campaign was mounted for its re-opening. The first success was a re-fashioned link with the Calder and Hebble Canal (which had never closed) at Sowerby Bridge, involving by far the deepest lock (Tuel Lane: 20ft) on the British Canal System. As restoration proceded, boats could travel further and further west, and the restoration of the sections through Failsworth and Ancoats were a significant part of the re-development of the north Manchester districts. In July 2002, the restored sections joined up with the never-closed section in Manchester, and the canal was re-opened to navigation along its entire length.
[edit] Today
The Rochdale is significant for leisure boating in that it is one of the three canals which cross the Pennines and thus join North-western canals with the waterways of the North East, as well as opening the possibilites of touring various Pennine Rings (the Huddersfield Narrow Canal had opened the year before, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal had never closed).
A great attraction of the Rochdale Canal for the leisure boater lies in the fact that (unlike the Leeds and Liverpool and the Huddersfield Narrow) it climbs high over the Pennine moors rather than tunnelling through them, and the boater is surrounded by scenery which is correspondingly more spectacular (with the "penalty" of having to work more locks).
The Rochdale is at the heart of several important leisure boating routes
- In Manchester, the Rochdale Canal connects the Ashton Canal to the Bridgewater Canal, and is thus a short link in the Cheshire Ring, a one- (or better, two-) week circular route which has been popular for 30 years.
- These two canals connect with the western ends of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and Huddersfield Narrow Canal which have also come from Yorkshire (hence the prospect of Pennine Rings).
- The Ashton and the Bridgewater connect the Rochdale to all the canals on the west side of England, including the Lancaster Canal, Trent and Mersey Canal and Macclesfield Canal.
East from Manchester, it crosses the Pennines via the hill towns and villages of Littleborough, Summit, Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, and Luddendenfoot (where Bramwell Bronte was a railway booking clerk). Finally, at Sowerby Bridge, its connection with the Calder and Hebble gives boats access to all the north-eastern waterways including the Aire and Calder Navigation, the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation, and the rivers Ouse and Trent (and, for boaters who wish to do a "ring", the eastern ends of the Huddersfield Narrow and Leeds/Liverpool canals).
The Rochdale has had many problems since reopening (often related to a shortage of water, because the canal's reservoirs had been sold off when the canal closed). In April 2005 the canal bank was breached between lock 60 and lock 63, near the River Irk. Thousands of gallons of water surged down the river towards the nearby town of Middleton, echoing the great Middleton canal tragedy of 1927. The canal re-opened in Summer 2006, but had problems throughout the season.
The high frequency of navigation restrictions (and the need to book passage through Tuel Lane lock, and across the summit pound) means that anyone planning to use the canal should consult the British Waterways website.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Pearson's Canal Companion Pennine waters ISBN 0-9545383-4-X
