Now Andy is nothing but dedicated, and yesterday he set off to Gorton in search of adventure.
He had “got up early and went to Gorton. First snap at 7.15 am”.
And I am guessing that sometime around 8.30 he happened on the canal that runs under Abbey Hey Lane.
Today it is just a scenic footpath, but at the back end of the 18th century and through the next, it was the Stockport branch of the Ashton Under Lyne Canal, which ran from Manchester to Ashton and on to Oldham.
According to Mr. Priestley’s Guide,* Royal ascent was granted in June 1792, and the year after permission was also given to “to extend the said Canal from a place called Clayton Demesne, in the township of Droylsden, in the parish of Manchester aforesaid to a place on the turnpike-road in Heaton Norris, leading between Manchester and Stockport, opposite the house known by the sign of the Three Boars’ Head, and from , or nearly from, a place called Taylor’s Barn, in the township of Reddish to Denton to a place called Beat Bank, adjoining the turnpike-road leading between Stockport and Ashton-Under-Lyne …..”**
The canal and branches “were made 31 feet wide at top and 15 at the bottom and in a depth of 5 feet. The locks are 70 feet long and 7 feet wide”.***
And for those with an interest in recreating the business model, in 1792 the company advertised its rates as ½d per ton per mile for lime, lime stone, dung, manure, clay, sand, and gravel, and 1d for coals, cannel coal, stone, and other minerals and timber. Three years later the rates had risen from ½d per ton per mile to 1d and 3d for all other goods.
The Stockport branch was constructed in 1793, and opened for business four years later.
It left the main canal at the Stockport Junction between locks 10 and 11 at Clayton and terminated at Stockport Basin.
It carried a mixed cargo, supplying cotton to the mills along its route as well finished textiles, as well as coal and grain. In its earliest days it also carried passengers between Manchester and Stockport.
But like so many of our inland waterways it suffered from railway competition, and commercial carrying ceased in the 1930s, and by the 1950s was barely navigable.****
Location; Gorton
Pictures the lost canal at Abbey Hey Lane, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Stockport branch of the Ashton-Under-Lyne Canal, 1830, from The Inland Navigation of England and Wales, George Bradshaw, 1830, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Map of the Inland Navigation and Railways of Great Britain, Joseph Priestly, 1830
**ibid Priestly page 39
***ibid Priestly, page 40
****Stockport Branch Canal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Branch_Canal
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| The lost canal, 2020 |
And I am guessing that sometime around 8.30 he happened on the canal that runs under Abbey Hey Lane.
Today it is just a scenic footpath, but at the back end of the 18th century and through the next, it was the Stockport branch of the Ashton Under Lyne Canal, which ran from Manchester to Ashton and on to Oldham.
According to Mr. Priestley’s Guide,* Royal ascent was granted in June 1792, and the year after permission was also given to “to extend the said Canal from a place called Clayton Demesne, in the township of Droylsden, in the parish of Manchester aforesaid to a place on the turnpike-road in Heaton Norris, leading between Manchester and Stockport, opposite the house known by the sign of the Three Boars’ Head, and from , or nearly from, a place called Taylor’s Barn, in the township of Reddish to Denton to a place called Beat Bank, adjoining the turnpike-road leading between Stockport and Ashton-Under-Lyne …..”**
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| The canal, 1830 |
And for those with an interest in recreating the business model, in 1792 the company advertised its rates as ½d per ton per mile for lime, lime stone, dung, manure, clay, sand, and gravel, and 1d for coals, cannel coal, stone, and other minerals and timber. Three years later the rates had risen from ½d per ton per mile to 1d and 3d for all other goods.
 |
| The walk, 2020 |
It left the main canal at the Stockport Junction between locks 10 and 11 at Clayton and terminated at Stockport Basin.
It carried a mixed cargo, supplying cotton to the mills along its route as well finished textiles, as well as coal and grain. In its earliest days it also carried passengers between Manchester and Stockport.
But like so many of our inland waterways it suffered from railway competition, and commercial carrying ceased in the 1930s, and by the 1950s was barely navigable.****
Location; Gorton
Pictures the lost canal at Abbey Hey Lane, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Stockport branch of the Ashton-Under-Lyne Canal, 1830, from The Inland Navigation of England and Wales, George Bradshaw, 1830, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Map of the Inland Navigation and Railways of Great Britain, Joseph Priestly, 1830
**ibid Priestly page 39
***ibid Priestly, page 40
****Stockport Branch Canal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Branch_Canal
This canal behind Reddish lane was our adventure playground in the early 1960's, it still had water in it then.
ReplyDeleteThanks Eric , bits weren't filled in till 1962.
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