Google Earth Community: Rochdale Canal

The Rochdale Canal was the first of the three canals to pierce the barrier of the Pennine Hills (the others were the Huddersfield Narrow and the Leeds & Liverpool). It ran from the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Sowerby Bridge in Yorkshire to the Bridgewater Canal in Manchester. It took 36 locks to reach the summit level and another 56 locks to get to central Manchester.

The Rochdale was a broad canal, its locks 14 feet by 70 feet. It opened throughout in 1804, over 200 years ago, and cargoes included timber, salt, cement, wool, cotton, grain and coal. Read about its history here.

In 1937 narrow boat “Alice”, carrying 20 tons of wire from Sowerby Bridge to Manchester, was the last commercial cargo to travel the whole canal. In 1952 the canal company officially abandoned the through-route across the Pennines, but the final link – the last nine locks - between the Ashton and Bridgewater canals never closed.

2002 saw the completion of the restoration of the Rochdale, which is now wholly navigable for leisure craft except for the ½ mile Rochdale branch. Photos of the restoration are here

With recent GE updates you can now travel the Rochdale in comfort and, with the kind permission of Martin Clark of www.penninewaterways.co.uk, see the canal in its regenerated role and enjoy the splendour of the Pennine scenery through which it passes. The placemark codes are:

A - Aqueduct
B - Bridge
F - Feature
L - Lock
T - Tunnel
V - Viaduct
W – Wharf

Check out the “Rochdale Canal Branch, Wharfs & Basins in 1931” folder inside the placemark. There you’ll find the course of the closed branch into Rochdale itself, revealed by 1931 Ordnance Survey mapping. I doubt this branch is a candidate for reopening!

I recommend you take the trip along the Rochdale from Sowerby Bridge in the north-east to Manchester in the south-west. That’s the direction Martin’s photographs lead us. Double-click the “Acknowledgement” placemark to zoom in to the start. And don’t forget to click on each placemark. Most of them have super photos of the canal today. Enjoy!

Tom