The route out of Marple follows the Peak Forest Canal. Mallards and tufted ducks scavenge for food around the locks, pleading for titbits from passers-by, often accompanied by mute swans which cruise regally up and down the canal between the narrowboats.
These locks are part of a famous flight of 16 which lift the canal 209 feet (63 metres); at between 13 and 14 feet (3.9 and 4.2 metres) each, they are among the deepest locks in the country. In places they are so narrow that it is possible to leap from one side to the other, though each lock has a small bridge so the operator can cross safely to open the gates.
The canal was opened in 1800, but the locks were not completed until 1804 owing to poor funding (in the meantime, a temporary tramway was built to carry goods from the bottom of the hill to what is now Top Lock). At bridge number 18, the canal goes through a short tunnel where barges were walked through by leggers — the horses were unhitched and led through a horse-sized tunnel alongside. The bridge is known as Posset Bridge; when navvies' morale was flagging with continuing delays, Samuel Oldknow spurred them on to completion with supplies of ale posset (a drink made from alcohol and curdled milk) from the nearby Navigation Inn.
Oldknow had sunk a great deal of money into the canal and was its chief promoter, relying on it for the transport of both raw materials and finished goods (he personally owned 15 barges, each costing the princely sum of £140 and capable of carrying 25 tons of produce). His mills created a great deal of employment for women and children whom he housed in the town, and to provide work for the menfolk he established a lime-burning concern, bringing lime from Dove Holes in Derbyshire. The limekilns were designed to resemble a Gothic church so as not to spoil the view from Oldknow's house, Mellor Lodge.
The canal enters a wooded section where great spotted woodpeckers can be heard hammering in rapid bursts on mature tree trunks. If you are fortunate, you may catch a glimpse of one darting through the woodland with its striking black-and-white plumage highlighted by a blood-red patch under its tail. In spring, nuthatches display by their chosen nesting holes as a natural highlight on this section of the walk.
On the outskirts of Strines, the route crosses the valley of the River Goyt, passing a reservoir that originally served the nearby Strines Print Works. In the centre is an unusual dovecote, now a listed building, and a steep path leads to Brook Bottom — a quaint little cluster of cottages complete with pub and primitive Methodist chapel, with the whole hamlet now registered as a conservation area.
The style of the countryside changes dramatically as you climb Cobden Edge on the borders of the Peak District, where ravens can be seen on the heights persecuting any passing birds of prey unwise enough to hunt over their patch. From a huge wooden cross erected in 1970 by a group of churches, there are splendid views of Kinder Scout and Chimney Churn in the Peak District to the east, over the sprawl of Manchester to the north-west, and to the fertile Cheshire Plain to the south.
The route drops through a golf course back into the sphere of influence of Samuel Oldknow. Bottom's Hall, the centre of his agricultural interests, was where he trained apprentices in farming techniques (poverty-stricken child workers were housed in an orphanage nearby). Just beyond Bottom's Hall you will be able to see the Roman Lakes through the trees; originally millponds, they served Oldknow's giant Mellor Mill, opened in 1790. The mill made Oldknow the country's major producer of muslin and continued to provide employment until it was levelled by fire in 1892.
Afterwards the walk follows the Midshires Way by riverside through parkland to Marple Bridge, into Brabyns Park, across Compstall Bridge, and after another stretch of delightful wooded parkland rejoins the canal, following it south to Marple Aqueduct before returning to the start of the walk near Marple Station.
Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.
