Marple Locks

Today I visited Marple to look at and photograph some of the locks on the Peak Forest Canal.

Some of the photos I took are on this page.

There are sixteen locks on the canal at Marple, raising it by 64 meters (that’s 210 feet is real measurements). I walked past most of them. About half a mile downstream from the lock shown above is an aqueduct, that I never reached (mainly because my legs were hurting a little). I’ll be returning next summer to photograph it.

I saw a few narrowboats on the canal. I don’t know how long it takes to get up or down the flight of locks, but it must be hard work.

A problem with the photography was the position of the sun. I wanted to walk up the canal from the station area, so I ended up close to the Samual Oldknow micropub. All the way up, the sun was shining in my eyes. As shown in the next two photos.

I passed this narrowboat twice, in between visits a fire had been lit.

More locks looking into the sun.

There were lots of people walking along the canal, often taking their dogs out for a walk.

As far as I could tell, there are two warehouses on the canal, the following photo shows the first one I came across.

Another lock.

An interesting tunnel under the road.

The second warehouse I came across.

Finding the Canal

I travelled to Marple by train.

Coming into Marple I saw the aqueduct and canal, below the train.

That morning, I had looked at a map that showed I had to turn right when I left the station, the canal was about half a mile along the road. I got confused because right was uphill and left was downhill. I’d already seen the canal below the train, which was why I got confused. After a bit of though I decided to turn right, even though it seemed illogical. I chose right and soon found the canal. All the locks between the aqueduct and the road to the station had increased its elevation, so it was now above the railway line.