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The reasons for these pages
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Five years ago we knew nothing about canals. Today we still know nothing but we are learning from people that have been involved for most of their adult life either in boating or canal support via canal societies.
Our own involvement started five years ago when friends invited us to share a weekend with them on their narrowboat. It’s all their fault !
That weekend experience resulted in the purchase of a narrowboat shell which we fitted out over the next year.
Being born in Stockport in 1944 the interest in canals brought back some very dim memories of fishing for Goldfish or was it guppies in the Stockport branch(affectionately know as the Lanky Cut by local people) of the Ashton canal close to the flour mill at the top of Lancashire Hill and a regret that it had taken 55 years to appreciate the canal system.
There are a lot of very good internet sites describing canals and associated activities which they now support but the one thing I have been unable to find is a site describing the lost Stockport canal.
To try and recover some of my childhood images I have decide to try and accumulate as much information including photographs of this lost resource.
I don’t know how successful this will be but with the help of anyone out there with old photographs of the canal perhaps we can revive some memories.
Has anyone got a map showing route and bridge numbers?
If possible e-mail any images, information or stories regarding the canal to (Please note the e-mail address jemsabi@ntlworld .com does not appear to work. If you have used this address recently please resend to) nb.jemsabi@ntlworld.com . I am also in the process of moving this site to http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nb.jemsabi/ . The response to this site has been excellent but its important to remember that history is the collective memory of people that used or experienced the canal. Remember - use it or lose it. Please help.
Canal History Back
The canal was constructed between 1793 and 1797. 
It left the Ashton Canal at Clayton, passing through Gorton and Reddish before reaching its terminus at the top of Lancashire Hill adjacent to the Nelstrop flour mill
with a wharf area between Wharf Street and Gordon Street. The length of the canal from Clayton to Stockport was 4 miles 71 chains. See maps for the canal route passing through Stockport and Reddish, Gorton and Openshaw, Clayton. (5.) In 1798 a bill was introduced to allow the abandonment of the Beat Bank branch and to offer compensation to landowners for damage done and raise another £30,000 to pay off existing debts. The company informed William Halton who owned the collieries at Denton that they could not afford to complete the branch. When Hulton opposed the Bill the company offered to give him the unfinished branch because they had obtained enough coal transport business. He refused hoping to get the abandonment defeated but he failed and the Act was passed. At the time of its construction the local area looked completely different than it does today (see map of 1848) comprising generally of an agricultural landscape with little or no industry. Major changes occurred during the 19th century with the construction of new industries which used the canal to transport raw materials and finished goods. As well as goods the canal also transported people to their place of work. (1.) In 1849 a steam packet began to move people between Openshaw Bridge and Lancashire Hill, Stockport at a fare of 4d. More locally, a bell rung in a mill tower would ensure the dispatch of a boat to bring workers to work in the local mills.
The main reason for building the canal was to move coal from the various coal mines around the district for consumption by local industry and local people. Most of this coal would have been offloaded at the Stockport coal wharfs at the Stockport canal basin. (5.)In January 1805 it was clear that the Werneth Colliery had been sending coal by road, in spite of their agreement top transport it by canal. The Ashton in July 1806 decided to end the agreement of 1795. The wharf area developed over the years accommodating different types of industry as can be seen by comparing the Stockport Basin maps of 1851 and 1893.
Business using the canal
William Nelstrop & Co Ltd
(4) In 1820 there were two mills, the older Park Corn Mills in Warren Street, Stockport, and Albion Flour Mills on Lancashire Hill, Stockport. The latter was on the present site and was built in 1820 on the bank of the Stockport Branch of the Ashton Canal. In 1868 the Park Corn Mills were destroyed by fire, after which Albion Flour Mills on Lancashire Hill were enlarged to take the whole trade. In 1893 the Albion Flour Mills were themselves destroyed by fire and the present mill erected and fitted with the latest milling technology. One of the main cargos transported by the canal was wheat from Liverpool Docks to the Nelstrop Albion Corn Mill at the top of Lancashire Hill. The flour produced was transported to Marple, Macclesfield , Stoke on Trent and many other places. The Albion Mill continues to produce flour today and is pushing on towards its 200 year anniversary.
Gregs Mill
Broadstone Mill
An artists impression of Broadstone and Houldsworth Mills circa 1907
courtesy of Richard Sym
Houldsworth Mill
Gorton Mill
In 1825 Messrs John Lees & Sons started spinning and weaving in a new mill on Abbey Hey Lane alongside the canal. This site was chosen because of the transport link by canal to the coal mines in Ashton and Oldham. The canal would also have provide a source of water until mains water became available in the 1850s.
Beyer - Peacock ( Gorton Tank)
Manufacturers of steam locomotives. This company used water from the canal and stored it in tanks on the Gorton Maintenance Yard site. A complete description can be found on gorton-tank.com a web site dedicated to this locomotive factory.
Carriers using the canal would have included (2):
- John and James Veevers
- Levi Maiden & Co
- George Higginbottom
- Pickfords : (3) An old established company capable of tracing their history of carrying back to 1630. For further details of notable landmarks in the company history click here. As a competitive carrying company they have through out their history used the latest transport technology. Between 1785 - 1850 the narrowboat was used as the preferred mode of transport for shipping goods between Manchester and London.
These boats would have used the local Ashton, Peak Forest and Macclesfield Canal’s as part of their route to London. Since Pickfords had a base in Manchester it is not to difficult to imagine some of their boats using the Stockport Branch of the Ashton Canal to deliver goods into the industrial heartland of Stockport Town.
- The Ashton Canal Co
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The above picture shows a typical industrial canal scene circa 1906 looking across the newly built Gorton Aqueduct onto wards Ogden Lane bridge. On the right in the foreground is Varna Street school with High Bank Mill behind. On the left hand side is the Gorton Boat Maintenance Yard. See layout of the yard on Contemporary Memories page.
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The above photograph shows the canal winding from its terminus at the top of Lancashire Hill out towards what is now the Whitefield Industrial estate. Note how quickly the canal passes through industrial sites and out into farm land. At the top right of the photograph it is possible to see a typical canal hump back bridge. The photograph I believe was taken in 1928 presumably during the local wakes week holiday. Note the lack of smoke from the factory and domestic chimneys also the lack of traffic. It would be nice to identify the local industry. Can anybody help.
Commercial carrying ceased in the 1930s
Following cessation of commercial traffic, the canal was abandoned and left to its fate. 
This is a picture taken circa 1962 of a length just north of the Broadstone Road bridge (The Houldsworth Mill is just out of shot on the right) and shows that it does not take long for nature to take over if regular maintenance of these assets is stopped. An abundant growth of plants has literally filled in the canal with the exception of a narrow water channel. The towpath and water wall though look in reasonably good condition
Photograph courtesy of Mr Ken Lowe
After it’s closure the line of the canal was subject to various works into the 1970s, all designed to remove the canal from the landscape and recover the ground.
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Time Line along the Stockport Canal:
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The canal today Back
The canal today, well to be blunt it doesn’t exist except for about 6 Metres at its junction with the Ashton Canal
but the original route is still visible except for sections at the Stockport end which have been built over. Its possible to walk with ease the route from Gorton to Clayton since the filled in canal has been turned into a foot path. Parking is available at Debdale Park 
at the junction of Hyde road and Gorton Road on the Debdale Park side of the junction. As far as I am aware the original cut for the canal was not destroyed but simply filled in. Parts of the original waterwall
can still be seen in places although I am sure that some of it has been lost due to building works. All of the bridges between Stockport and North Reddish have been lost but from Gorton to Clayton the original bridges are largely intact. Go to page As it is to see the route of the canal as it is today. Its much harder to find evidence for the existence of the canal at the Stockport end since with the exception of the Albion Flour Mill the area has been largely redeveloped. There are however, a few features which may have some relevance to the waterway. At the corner of Gordon Street and Lancashire Hill in Stockport is a building which I now know is the modified remains of Harry Slack’s slaughterhouse that once would have run parallel to the canal.
Notice the arched doorway on the left of the picture which would have given access to the wharf area. I will try to confirm the original use of this building.
On the left hand side of Wharf Street are the remains of an old wall the origins of which are unknown but are assumed to be associated with wharf buildings. Where are Time Team when you need them?
The canal in the future Back
Well it’s hard to see one. Although from Reddish to Clayton I estimate that two men with a shovel apiece could most probably recover the canal in ten years. From Reddish to Stockport is another story since the line of the canal has been broken with buildings and bridges lost.
But you never know. See the Inland Waterway Association web site at http://www.waterways.org.uk/news/waterways/2002issues/summer/navnews.htm .
© W Bates, 2002
Last update: 01 October, 2004