The Marple Flight

Yesterday we tackled the flight of 16 locks at Marple.  On the way, passing through Woodley and Hyde Bank tunnels and on to the Marple Aqueduct – reminding us very much of the Chirk Aqueduct on the Llangollen Canal with the railway viaduct running alongside.

James steering across the Marple Aqueduct.
Very soon after the aqueduct we arrived at the bottom of the Marple Locks.  The locks raise the canal 208 feet to the town of Marple.  We think this flight is one of the prettiest on the system – ascending through an area of dense vegetation, it’s well maintained although the paddles of almost every lock are very, very heavy to operate.

The pool at the bottom of the flight with ‘Toulouse’ waiting to go up.

Some of the masons marks on the each of the stone blocks making up the lock walls.

Doug on the folding bike we carry on board racing up and down the flight setting the upper locks and going back to drain the lower ones ready for ‘Toulouse’ following up behind.

‘Chance’ about half way up the flight.

Some of the locks can resemble a jungle!

At the top!  Lovely views.
We stopped to water up both boats and get provisions in Marple before continuing on the Peak Forest Canal (towards Whaley Bridge).  After a short distance we moored up for the night.  A good days’ work!
16 Locks, 7 Miles,  5.6 hours.