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Home > Route Information > Canals & Rivers >

Rochdale Canal

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The Route

The route covers
> Rochdale Canal

Including
> Summit Level
> Rochdale 9 Locks

DVDs

Great DVDs showing the Rochdale Canal where it forms part of the Cheshire Ring

> Popular : Like a television programme.

> Bowcam: For a little fun - a speeded up forward facing camera.

> Combined: Both Popular and Bowcam in one box, saving you money.

Description of the Route

From the Basins at Castlefield Junction the canal immediately climbs through 9 locks to reach Ducie Street Junction where the Ashton Canal diverges to the right. The Rochdale Canal continues the long climb with further locks as it passes through the Manchester suburbs.

At Grimshaw Lane there is an unusual lifting bridge to allow boats to pass underneath, the Chadderton and the 6 locks at Slattocks. A culvert takes the canal under the M62 and shortly afterwards a tunnel. Missing the centre of Rochdale there is a short break from locks before passing Smithy Bridge and Littleborough and making the final climb to the summit.

There is no tunnel at the summit as on other Pennine crossings and the summit pound is less than a mile long. This is the second highest summit pound at 183m (600 feet) above sea level (beaten only by the Huddersfield Narrow Canal at 197m (645 feet)).

Now descending through Todmorden the line of the canal twists to follow the valley. After Hebden Bridge the frequency of locks reduces a little until Sowerby Bridge is reached.

Tuel Lane lock replaces two former locks and is the deepest lock on the canal systems. The short Tuel Lane tunnel and two more locks bring us to the junction with the Calder and Hebble Canal.

History

Construction took 10 years after the Act of Parliament in 1794. Fortunes varied for the canal during the 1800s. Limited water supplies to the short summit pound and the large number of locks to be ascended and descended on through journeys led to a decline by the early 1900s.

Apart from a short section in Manchester which connected the Ashton and Bridgewater Canals the remainder was formally closed in 1952. Restoration began some 30 years later and the canal is now reopened throughout using most of the original alignment.

Photo Gallery

Take a virtual cruise along the Rochdale Canal.

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