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Rochdale Canal holidays
People who know their canals put the
Rochdale Canal among their top canals, which is just as well
because its summit is the second highest in England. It's not a
specially long canal, at 33 miles, but it packs in a lot of
locks - 91. It has to, with the Pennines to cross. The Rochdale
Canal also packs in a huge variety of scenery, from crags and
woods beside the infant Calder to views of the moors, and from
stone-built hamlets, villages and small towns to vast red-brick
mills and shining new tower blocks on the way into Manchester.
Most of the Rochdale Canal's traffic is now on the Yorkshire
side, which starts right in our boatyard in Sowerby Bridge.
Climbing swiftly away, via the new Tuel Tunnel Lock (the deepest
canal lock in England), you soon find yourself half way up the
hillside with the edge of town spread below. Then secluded
wooded stretches lead to more open views as you progress up the
valley. Passing through the unpronounceable Mytholmroyd, you soon
approach Hebden Bridge. Some boaters stick here, absorbed by the
alternative atmosphere, the interesting life, the beguiling
layout of the town, piled up the hillside, and the opportunities
for walks.
Above Hebden Bridge, the valley becomes more
romantic with lots to see on the way to Todmorden, a grand small
town with impressive buildings, a market and a good selection of
restaurants and pubs. Then you pass the Great Wall of Tod,
supporting the railway high above, and start climbing more
steeply towards the summit, with the county boundary with
Lancashire just below. Across the short summit, the canal drops
fast down to Littleborough, with its interesting second hand
bookshop. The canal levels out for a bit, and leads through
Rochdale, which is unusual for not yet having woken up to the
possibilities its restored canal offers.
The last bit of
open scenery leads you to the edge of Manchester, and an intense
lock experience through alternately challenging and fascinating
urban scenery leading to the impressive new buildings
surrounding the junction with the Ashton Canal. A final brief
descent under and past a kaleidoscope of buildings, though a
much-frequented area of canalside bars, leads to the imposing
end of the canal, where it meets the first English canal (the
Duke of Bridgewater's) at Castlefield.
A trip across the
whole Rochdale Canal is an exhilarating and unforgettable
experience. see below for how get a taste of this amazing canal.
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The Rochdale Canal - a little history
First discussed as early as 1766, construction started
in 1794 and the Rochdale Canal was the first of the
trans-Pennine canals to open, in 1805. Projected as a
narrow canal, it was built broad and with longer locks
than the Calder & Hebble Navigation, which had reached
Sowerby Bridge in 1770.
The Rochdale Canal was an
immediate success, carrying coal, grain from
Lincolnshire, stone and merchandise of all sorts
including of course the textiles for which the area was
famous. Boats were a mixture of flats and keels, with
their origins on the west and east side respectively.
Traffic did well while the railway was being built
alongside, but then suffered. there were also water
shortages in dry summers, despite many more reservoirs
being built. the blockade of the Humber ports in the
First World War was never recovered from. the last
through traffic was in 1937, by which time the
reservoirs had been sold for public water supply, and
the canal was legally closed in 1952.
After a period
of dreary stagnation, with bridges being dropped and
long sections filled in, people who had seen the Ashton
restored in 1974 said 'why not the Rochdale?'. all
sensible people agreed that the Rochdale could not
possibly be restored, but soon local authorities saw the
possibility for reopening the towpaths with job creation
schemes, and before long it seemed a good idea to make
the odd lock gate. By the mid 80s, all the local
authorities along the route were working on their
sections, and a temporary access of money when the
county councils were abolished allowed some serious
blockages to be removed.
The outer Manchester ring
road (M60) was planned to obliterate the canal, and
somehow the Rochdale Canal Society, local authorities
and other objectors managed to get this threat changed
into the construction of 1km of new canal through a
motorway intersection. After that it was only a matter
of time, and by 2001 the Rochdale Canal was open from
end to end.
The reopening has enabled and encouraged
many millions of pounds of property development,
refurbishment and other regeneration, so the public
money invested is earning a good return. And local
people make very good use of the canal in many ways, of
which boating is only one. |
Why travel with Shire Cruisers?
Shire Cruisers are the experts in Pennine boating holidays, with
30 years experience. We offer unrivalled service from the moment
you first think about travelling with us, till you finish your
holiday. Our website tells you a great deal, we can answer
queries on the phone or by email, and our pre-holiday
Information Pack is the best in the business. We give very
extensive training, including passage of three real locks. The
boats themselves are well-designed, expertly built and carefully
maintained by our own stable team of craftsmen.
Our boats are
inspected and graded by independent experts from
VisitBrtain, and our handover scheme is audited by the
British Marine Federation. So with Shire Cruisers you get the quality and support in depth to enable you to have truly memorable boating holiday |
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