Sunday, 5 May 2013

Friday night at Marple Saturday night at Bugsworth.

Moored at Marple ; junction with Peak Forest canal at end of Macclesfield canal. Apparently a favourite day out for Mancunians and a pretty canal frontage, flight of locks and view across the valley, but Marple itself is not so interesting, it's centre consisting of more recently built shops, the kind you find anywhere.

However on Saturday morning we were able to top up supplies and head off again along this high canal that runs along the hillside and overlooks the Goyt valley below. The Peak Forest canal ends in a fork, one way to Buxworth, or Bugsworth as it was and one to Whaley Bridge. We took the Whaley Bridge fork and were disappointed to find it followed the noisy A6 closely and was mainly taken up with permanent moorings. The very end was scruffy and all the public moorings were taken, so we turned around and went back down the Bugsworth arm which we'd intended to do tomorrow. Bugsworth terminal basin has been lovingly restored and is a pleasant place to moor, with a good pub on its doorstep, always a huge plus point for us. Originally a busy working complex built as close to the nearby limestone quarries as possible so that the tramway constructed in 1799 could bring the stone down the hills to Bugsworth where it was transferred to canal boats. The canal and this basin became disused until volunteers started clearing them in 1968. We are very lucky they did as it's an interesting place to moor with quite a community feel with other boaters.




Goyt Mill




Marple









Part of Bugsworth Basin with tramline






Ani backdropped by lime kilns

1 comment:

  1. Mighty impressive looking bateau you have there. Also impressive are some of the location names, very 'ecky thump, trouble at t'mil'.

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