Marple Locks, a Virtual Tour

Click the buttons below and images will be displayed. Each lock has two images; one is the bridge over the tail of the lock, while the other is the lock itself. Buttons displaying the tail bridge have the suffix 't'. All photographs are dated 1978.

Marple Locks raise the Peak Forest Canal by 209 feet from a level of 309 feet to 518 feet above Ordnance Datum over a distance of one mile. The 16 locks have an average rise of 13 feet 0¾ inches. These locks are among the deepest narrow locks in the country and the Upper Peak Forest Canal is the second highest canal pound, the highest being the summit pound of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

Due to severe financial constraints on the Peak Forest Canal Company, the construction of Marple Locks took many years to complete and to overcome the delay the temporary Marple Tramway was built to bypass the unfinished locks.

October 1795: The Committee instruct Benjamin Outram, the Consulting Engineer, to stake out the line of Marple Locks but groundwork only commenced on locks 1, 2, 3 and 4.

July 1796: The Committee considered that it was not entirely obligated to building locks and it examined a range of options. In contradiction to this, the site of lock 16 (Top Lock) was agreed upon and this determined the location for the construction of Samuel Oldknow's lime kilns.

February 1797: The Committee resolved that locks shall be built at Marple and groundwork started on locks 6, 7, 8 and 9.

March to October 1797: Groundwork started on locks 13, 14 and 15. There was no mention of lock 16 and it can be deduced that this was in an advanced stage of construction.

October 1797: All work on the locks was suspended and it was decided to build the temporary Marple Tramway.

January 1798: Work commenced on construction of the tramway to bypass the unfinished locks.

May 1798: The tramway opened with a single track having passing places.

August 1801 to October 1801: It is likely that there was limited construction work on the locks.

November 1802: It is believed that some groundwork for the locks was underway.

November 1803: Groundwork was complete and work started on building the locks.

August 1804: The locks were in an advanced state of completion.

13 October 1804: Locks 13, 14, 15 and 16 opened. These four locks gave Samuel Oldknow canal access to both the top and bottom of his newly built lime kilns.

October/November 1804: It is understood that construction of lock 6 was completed during this period. This was the last one to be completed but the locks were still not open throughout for navigation.

12 November 1805: Marple locks were open throughout on, or shortly before, this date. The most likely date lies somewhere between the first and twelfth day of November 1805. Although the locks were now open for trade, their construction was by no means complete.

February 1807: Marple Tramway closed.

June 1811: The Committee of the Peak Forest Canal Company, Thomas Brown (now the Consulting Engineer) and the Agent of Richard Arkwright Junior agreed that all construction work on Marple Locks was complete and that no further work was needed other than routine maintenance. Richard Arkwright Junior was the major financier for the construction of the locks.