Leek Tunnel

Leek Tunnel on the Caldon Canal in Staffordshire. This short 130 yard tunnel is on the Leek Arm of the Caldon Canal. Part of the tunnel had to be re-lined and it was closed for a long time. An industrial estate has been built over the final half mile of the branch into Leek.
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Mill at Marple

Goyt Mill stands next to Eccles Bridge on the Macclesfield Canal at Hawk Green, near Marple.

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Wigan

Lock 80 of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Wigan. The canal climbs 23 locks at Wigan, making a tiring day for boaters. The area on the right was known as Bambers Quay. It would be interesting to hear if anyone knows the function of the new tower by the next lock. One passer-by thought it might be concealing a phone mast, but they don't usually go to that much trouble!
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Knighton Wharf

Knighton Wharf on the Shropshire Union Canal. The wharf was used by Cadbury's from 1911 to 1961. Chocolate "crumb" was produced in the adjoining factory, using local milk, and was taken by narrow boat to Bourneville in Birmingham.

Cadbury built the crumb factory at Knighton because it was found to be more efficient to take the cocoa to the milk than transport the milk over a long distance.

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Etruria

Alongside the Trent and Mersey Canal, between the second and third locks up the Stoke flight, stand these pottery kilns.

The two bottle kilns were built in 1887 for Thomas Twyford's Cliff Vale Pottery, Etruria. The listed kilns have been preserved while most of the disused pottery site has been cleared. Only the two kilns and the buildings fronting Shelton New Road survive.

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Penkridge

The Cross Keys Inn is alongside the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal next to Filance Bridge in Penkridge.
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Throstle Nest

Throstle Nest Turnover Bridge on the Bridgewater Canal at Old Trafford, half a mile east of Manchester United's football stadium. The towpath changes sides here. Throstle Nest Lock was situated a short distance to the north on the River Irwell, but was demolished with the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal.
[Photo contributed by Richard Carpenter]
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Tixall

Tixall Lock on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, opened in 1772. This is the first lock encountered after leaving the Trent and Mersey Canal. Half a mile south from nearby Tixall Bridge, good walking is to be had around Milford Common at the northern end of Cannock Chase.
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Lincoln

Looking across Brayford Pool at the eastern end of Foss Dyke in Lincoln. In the far left corner of the pool, boats exit via the Glory Hole to the Witham Navigation.

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Merry Hill

The Waterfront at Merry Hill, on the Dudley No 1 Canal near Brierley Hill. The Merry Hill Shopping Centre is behind the camera.
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Maesbury Marsh

Bridge 79 on the Montgomery Canal at Maesbury Marsh, near Oswestry. A crane still stands on the small wharf. Adjoining the bridge is the Navigation Inn and Warehouse Restaurant. The canal here was built as the Llanymynech Branch of the Ellesmere Canal. Closed following a breach near Frankton in 1936, this section was re-opened in 2003.

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Belmont Double Lock

Belmont Double Lock on the Grand Canal in Ireland. The lock keeper awaits the approaching boat. Notice the practice often found in Ireland of entering the bottom chamber of a staircase with both chambers empty and the middle gates open.

The Grand Canal runs 82 miles from Dublin to the River Shannon with the Barrow Line linking it to the River Barrow. Five of the 43 locks on the Grand Canal are Double locks (two-rise staircase locks), along with two of the nine locks on the Barrow Line.

Gauxholme

The Rochdale Canal climbing out of Todmorden through the steep-sided Calder Valley at Gauxholme. Lock 22 is in the foreground.

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Harecastle

The northern end of Harecastle Tunnel, Kidsgrove, Staffordshire.

On the right, the entrance to Brindley's original 1777 tunnel can be seen. This original tunnel is disused and is blocked by rock falls.

The present tunnel, designed by Telford, was opened in 1827. It originally had a towpath running through, but has now been removed. It is 2675 metres long - around one and two third miles.

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Galgate

Galgate Bridge on the Lancaster Canal, looking south on a long zoom to Galgate Marina, half a mile north of the junction with the Glasson Branch. [Contributed by Richard Carpenter]
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Meaford

Meaford House Lock, the middle of three locks at Meaford, on the Trent and Mersey Canal in Staffordshire. Meaford is just over a mile north of the canal town of Stone. The bridge is a turnover bridge, where the towpath changed sides without the need for the horses towing the boats to be detached from the towing lines.

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Hazlehurst

The top lock at Hazlehurst, on the Caldon Canal in Staffordshire.

There are three locks at Hazlehurst, descending from the canal's summit level towards Cheddleton and the River Churnett. Above the locks is the junction with the Leek branch, which swings across the main line below the locks by way of Hazlehurst Aqueduct.

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