Peak Forest Canal
The Peak Forest canal is a narrow canal just short of 15 miles in length running between Ashton under Lyne ( East of Manchester ) and Whaley Bridge ( Derbyshire ), a terminus at Bugsworth Basin is noted as one of the best preserved canal – tramway interchanges in the country. The Lower Peak Forest Canal forms part of the Cheshire Ring. The main aim behind the idea of the Peak Forest Canal was to provide access to the limestone from Dove holes, which is about 1000 ft above sea level. The challenge was made easier by terminating the canal at a basin Bugsworth
(Derbyshire) and running gravity fed tram lines down to it from the mines. The longest of these the Peak Forest Tramway was six miles long.
The necessary Act authorising the construction of the canal was passed in 1794 with the idea promoted by Samuel Oldknow with the project heavily financed by Richard Arkwright Jnr.
Thomas brown was appointed as surveyor and consulting engineer with Benjamin outram as resident engineer.The first section constructed was between Hyde Hall and Ashton, to service the new coal mines in that area, hoping to produce an early income here for the canal. 1795 recorded some financial difficulties as the project had now overspent by £1100, not helped by the fact that some difficulty was being had in getting all the shareholders to meet
their commitments, but the tramway and canal to Marple were still opened in August 1798, in spite of a deficit that was now running to £4,000.The canal was finally opened for its full length in 1800.
1813 saw the opening of the Macclesfield Canal which provided a link from marple Locks to the Trent and Mersey, which increased use of the canal, which also attracted some traffic travelling between Manchester and London and the canal made good profits, further helped by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway which in 1848 bought the canal to feed goods to the Railway. From there traffic declined until by 1925 the tramway from the quarries closed leaving little use of the canal south of Macclesfield Junction.
1948 saw nationalisation along with the Railways with ownership of the canal passing through the hands of the British Transport Commission to British Waterways, but the canal still stayed in water and navigable in most places. 1964 saw the formation of the Peak Forest Canal Society who worked with the Inland Waterways Association to keep the canal open seeing the restoration of the Ashton Canal in 1974 and re-opening of the Cheshire Ring for leisure use.
1999 saw In 1964, the Peak Forest Canal Society was formed and, with the Inland Waterways Association, fought to keep the Peak Forest and Ashton Canals open and to restore them. Their campaign led to the restoration of the Ashton Canal in 1974 and the re-opening of the Cheshire Ring of canals for leisure use.
In 1999, the Basins at Bugsworth (where the village is now known as Buxworth) were re-opened after extensive restoration, offering a tranquil mooring for narrowboats. Sadly, serious leaks continued to affect the Bugsworth arm and it was closed again after only six months. Major remedial work has been carried out and it is hoped that the arm and basins can be re-opened permanently.Bugsworth Basin was re-opened in 1999 and then closed 6 months later due to leakage problems, which were finally resolved in 2005 with restoration complete with the reopening on the 26th March 2005.