An Overview

The Act of Parliament permitting construction of the Peak Forest Canal was 34 George III Cap 26, which received the Royal Assent on the 28 March 1794 and it became effective on the 20 May 1794.

The line of this narrow canal was to be from the southern end of the Tame Aqueduct in Dukinfield, Cheshire, where it was to connect with the Ashton Canal, passing through Newton, Hyde, Woodley, Bredbury, Romiley, Marple, Strines, Disley, Newtown (New Mills), Furness Vale and Bugsworth and from there to its projected terminus at Chapel Milton. From Chapel Milton, a 'Railway or Stone Road' was to be built to Loads Knowle (near Dove Holes). A short branch canal to Whaley Bridge was also to be cut. The Act for the Peak Forest Canal became effective on the 20 May 1794 and Thomas Brown, the Resident Engineer, cut the first clod.

The Deposited Plan of the proposed canal (initially known as the intended Derbyshire Canal), was drawn up by Thomas Brown and deposited with the Clerk of the Peace for Derbyshire in 1793. It envisaged two flights of locks, one at Marple and the other at Whitehough beyond Bugsworth. There were to be three canal tunnels, these being at Butterhouse Green (Woodley), Hyde Bank and Rose Hill, and a tramway tunnel at Stodhart.

As built, the Peak Forest Canal lay entirely in the County Palatine of Chester with the exception of a short section on the approach to Bugsworth, which was in Derbyshire. In the event, the canal was terminated at Bugsworth in order to avoid construction of Whitehough Locks and preclude the problem of an inadequate water supply for the summit pound and terminal basin at Chapel Milton. This would have required the construction of a special reservoir at Wash, which may not have been sufficient to guarantee and adequate supply of water. An additional, and less appreciated, reason for this change to the design was the discovery of an outcrop of gritstone just beyond Bugsworth, where the company subsequently opened the successful Crist Quarry and the later Barren Clough Quarry.

The company reached their decision to modify the design on the 8 July 1795 and this was done on the advice of Benjamin Outram and Thomas Brown, their consulting and resident engineers respectively. The Committee of the Peak Forest Canal Company expressed the opinion that it was in the interests of the company to:

The effect of this was that the Peak Forest Canal terminated at Bugsworth rather than at the projected terminus at Chapel Milton, which was two miles away, hence the Peak Forest Tramway was built two miles longer. The canal was the a little over 14½ miles long and the tramway about six miles long.

In October 1795, the Committee asked Outram to stake out the line of Marple Locks but the company was becoming overwhelmed with financial problems, as a result of which their construction was delayed.

The Upper Peak Forest Canal and the Peak Forest Tramway opened for trade on the 31 August 1796. The Lower Peak Forest Canal between Dukinfield and Marple Aqueduct was open in 1798 and the aqueduct opened on the 1 May 1800. Meanwhile, the want for locks at Marple were overcome by the construction of the temporary Marple Tramway that was in use between 1798 and 1807. The top four locks at Marple (locks 13, 14, 15 and 16) were opened on the 13 October 1804 but it was not until November 1805 that the remaining 12 locks were opened. Thus, it was not until November 1805 that the Peak Forest Canal was fully open throughout its entire length. As a consequence, Marple Locks and Tramway were operated in tandem for two years.

Further significant events are listed below:

• On the 6 July 1831, the Cromford and High Peak Railway opened throughout and this linked the Cromford Canal at High Peak Wharf to the Peak Forest Canal at Marple.
  
  
• On the 9 November 1831, the Macclesfield Canal opened throughout and this linked the Peak Forest Canal at Marple with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Hall Green, near Kidsgrove.
  
  
• On the 25 March 1846, the Peak Forest Canal Company was leased to the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway Company. This company was a precursor of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company.
  
  
• On the 27 July 1846, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company was incorporated.
  
  
• On the 1 January 1847, the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway Company; the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway Company; the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway Company and the Grimsby Dock Company all amalgamated to form the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company. As a consequence of this amalgamation, the Ashton, Peak Forest and Macclesfield Canals became collectively known as the Western Canals.
  
  
• In 1863, ownership of the Peak Forest Canal Company passed to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company.
  
  
• On the 2 August 1883, the Peak Forest Canal Company was dissolved and the canal and tramway were vested in the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company. Between 1846 and 1883 the only function of the original Peak Forest Canal Company was to distribute any dividends that were payable to its shareholders.
  
  
• On the 1 August 1897, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company changed its name to the Great Central Railway Company. This change of name was prompted as a result of the company now having a rail connection to London.
  
  
• During the Great War (1914-18), rail companies came under government control and this control also extended to canals owned by railway companies.
  
  
• On the 12 December 1922, the Amalgamation Tribunal, formed as a result of the Railways Act of 1921, ratified the North Eastern, Eastern and East Scottish railway scheme whereby the Great Central Railway Company was to cease to exist at the end of 1922 to become an integral part of the London and North Eastern Railway Company.
  
  
• From the 1 January 1923, the London and North Eastern Railway Company owned the Western Canals and that included the Peak Forest Canal.
  
  
• On the 31 July 1925, the London and North Eastern Railway Company Act, 15/16 George V Cap LII, was passed and a clause in this Act permitted the legal abandonment of the Peak Forest Tramway.
  
  
• In 1947, the Transport Act was passed as a consequence of which the British Transport Commission was established and they, in turn, established their Inland Waterways Division.
  
  
• On the 1 January 1948, the London and North Eastern Railway Company was nationalised along with the other three railway companies. Consequently, the Peak Forest Canal, as well as many other canal undertakings passed under the control of the Inland Waterways Division of the British Transport Commission. Subsequently, the Inland Waterway Division adopted the name, 'British Waterways Board'.
  
  
• These days, British Waterways Board is known as 'British Waterways' and they still manage the canals that were nationalised on the 1 January 1948.
  
  
• On the 13 May 1974, the Lower Peak Forest Canal and Marple Locks, as well as the Ashton Canal, were officially re-opened after becoming derelict in the 1960s.
  
  
• At Easter 2005, Bugsworth Basin, at the terminus of the Peak Forest Canal, was officially re-opened after lying derelict since the 1920s.

Captain Clarke's Bridge on the Lower Peak Forest Canal, 1980s.	Burgess's Bridge on the Lower Peak Forest Canal, 19 February 2006.
Lock 1 of Marple Locks, June 1974.	Whaley Bridge Junction, 1980s.
The Lower Basin Arm at Bugsworth Basin, 24 March 2005.	The Middle Basin at Bugsworth Basin, 26 March 2005. The two working boats are Joel and Maria.