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| Goyt Mill |
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| Goyt Mill |
The Goyt Mill was built in 1905 for the Goyt Spinning Company Limited. It was purely a spinning mill. It was steam powered and water for the boilers was taken from the canal. Coal and raw cotton were delivered by canal. When in full production in the 1930s, it employed nearly 500 people, but the run-down of the cotton industry forced it to close in 1959. It stood empty for a few years and was then used until 1981 for the manufacture of plastic foam. Since then it has been divided into small units and more than 80 businesses now have their business in the Goyt Mill.
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| Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canal Junction |
As you can see from the photos above the views from the canal are breathtaking. Even when the canal is tree lined you can see glimpses of the hills and valleys beyond. The Mac in particular has large sections cut into the side of a hill or built up on an embankment to pass over a valley. So we have an elevated position above the towns and valleys.
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| Viaduct |
At Marple Junction we took the decision to head towards Bugsworth Basin instead of the other direction towards Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester. Two reasons: having been through such fantastic countryside, we did not fancy going through many miles of built up suburbs and towns, the other reason was on the immediate start of the Ashton section there are 16 locks in quick succession rising 214 feet - granted, they were downhill but, as we are heading back towards Stoke this week, it would have meant turning round and coming back uphill through them. No chance!!
Last night we moored at Bugsworth Basin and had a meal at the Navigation Inn (formally owned by Pat Pheonix of Coronation Street fame). The basin is an amazing piece of engineering. It has so many arms and tunnels Jan got lost last night when she took Spot for a walk.
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| Map of Bugsworth Basin |
Initially, the canal terminus and tramway interchange was to have been located at Chapel Milton, 3 km east of Bugsworth; the route then being continued by tramway to the limestone quarries at Dove Holes. This would have involved the construction of a reservoir at Hockham Brook, and a flight of locks at Whitehough to raise the level of the canal to the tramway. Due to the difficulties of organising sufficient provision of water to supply a summit pound which could cope adequately with the heavy lock consumption, the reservoir and locks were never built; the canal terminus and tramway interchange being instead constructed at Bugsworth.
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| Bugsworth Basin |
In 1846, the canal and tramway were leased to the Sheffield, Ashton-u-Lyne and Manchester Railway, and ownership subsequently passed to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, the Great Central, and finally the London and North Eastern. The Peak Forest Canal Company was dissolved in 1883, and the complex was closed c1927 by the LNER; the site remaining abandoned until 1968 when the IWPS began their ambitious restoration project.
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| Tilly May at Bugsworth Basin |
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| Bugsworth Basin |
Extensive robbing of stone had destroyed the former buildings and upper wall coursings, but the essential site layout remained intact. Restoration over the past 25 years has included the reconstruction of the upper masonry of the tramway embankment bridge and the almost complete restoration of the original wharfage areas and retaining walls, of which there is a total length of some 2 km.
Opened on 31 August 1796, Bugsworth Basin became one of the largest ports on the English narrow canal network, and remains unique as the only complete example of a canal and tramway terminus in Britain. Granted the status of a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 1977, the Basin complex and its associated structures and physical remains are now protected by law under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act.
Here endeth the history lesson.
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