Highest canal in the UK?

[twocvbloke]

Something I was wondering this morning whilst following the L&L along in Google Earth, is which canal is or has the highest point above sea level? Dunno why I started wondering this, but it's just one of those questions that makes me wonder...

[magpie patrick]

Something I was wondering this morning whilst following the L&L along in Google Earth, is which canal is or has the highest point above sea level? Dunno why I started wondering this, but it's just one of those questions that makes me wonder...

 

Simple answer first: the Huddersfield Canal which is around 620 feet above sea level, The Rochdale is next, then the Peak Forest/Macclesfield (around 520 feet) then I think the Titford Canal (498 feet) and the Leeds and Liverpool and the Caldon which are almost exactly the same height above sea level at around 490 feet.

 

Ten years ago the answer was more complex than this because the Rochdale and Huddersfield canals were both closed and abandoned. Nowadays the only canal that ever belonged at the top table that isn't navigable is the Essington Branch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal which pitched in around 520 feet but closed over 100 years ago.

[MartinClark]

Simple answer first: the Huddersfield Canal which is around 620 feet above sea level, The Rochdale is next, then the Peak Forest/Macclesfield (around 520 feet) then I think the Titford Canal (498 feet) and the Leeds and Liverpool and the Caldon which are almost exactly the same height above sea level at around 490 feet.

 

The Huddersfield Narrow summit is 645 feet above sea level.

 

No need to guess the heights or pluck them from the depths of memory!

I did the research a couple of years ago and the table of heights above sea level is here!

http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/summits.htm

[WJM]

Huddersfield Narrow, the level with the Standedge Tunnel on it?

[Nine of Hearts]

http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/summits.htm

 

Thanks ever so for that. In an anorak kind of way I've logged my "altitude" on my blog since the boat was launched, but only as height above her launch level. (Calculated by adding up the lock lifts). According to your site, I'm currently at the giddy height of 453ft. Ulp...

 

Also, loved the photo of the Ardnacrusha lock. Could help but spot there was actually a ladder. The thought of climbing up that from the roof when single-handing made me feel sick. Yikes!

[MartinClark]

Huddersfield Narrow, the level with the Standedge Tunnel on it?

Yes - that's the summit level.

[magpie patrick]

The Huddersfield Narrow summit is 645 feet above sea level.

 

No need to guess the heights or pluck them from the depths of memory!

I did the research a couple of years ago and the table of heights above sea level is here!

http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/summits.htm

 

Oooooh, very impressive! I got the order right but not necessarily the heights. Ripple has been to HNC, Peak Forest/Macc, Caldon and Titford so I'll have to try and bag the others at some point.

 

Does anyone know where that ridiculous term for the Rochdale "The Everest of Canals" came from?

[Nine of Hearts]

Does anyone know where that ridiculous term for the Rochdale "The Everest of Canals" came from?

 

It's double glazed???

[MartinClark]

Does anyone know where that ridiculous term for the Rochdale "The Everest of Canals" came from?

I don't know, but it's a favourite of lazy journalists on local papers such as the [name removed to save lawsuits], who trot it out each time there is a Rochdale Canal story, along with the incorrect claim that it is the highest canal!

 

Also, loved the photo of the Ardnacrusha lock. Could help but spot there was actually a ladder. The thought of climbing up that from the roof when single-handing made me feel sick. Yikes!

You'll be relieved to know that you wouldn't need to! The lock is operated for you by an employee of the hydro-electric power station. The lock fills and empties incredibly smoothly. Although you are asked to use ropes, there is very little sensation of movement.

[Chris J W]

Does anyone know where that ridiculous term for the Rochdale "The Everest of Canals" came from?

 

Never heard it called that, I must say! However, I think I'll now start giving the HNC the name "Heart and Back Break Hill" ...

[boatmanckp]

The Huddersfield Narrow summit is 645 feet above sea level.

 

No need to guess the heights or pluck them from the depths of memory!

I did the research a couple of years ago and the table of heights above sea level is here!

http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/summits.htm

Martin.We always used to quote the Macc./Peak Forest 518 ft above sea level I think you may be quoting the height of the bench marks engraved on some of the bridges which are above the water levels and which would be recorded on ordance survey data. Of course there may have been changes in the mean sea level or odanance datum from which the caluculation have been made. CKP

Edited September 1, 2008 by boatmanckp

[MartinClark]

Also, loved the photo of the Ardnacrusha lock. Could help but spot there was actually a ladder.

 

Here is a closer view of one of the ladders!

 

[WJM]

Ah! German engineering - 'You are getting a ladder wether you want one or not!"

[MartinClark]

Martin.We always used to quote the Macc./Peak Forest 518 ft above sea level I think you may be quoting the height of the bench marks engraved on some of the bridges which are above the water levels and which would be recorded on ordance survey data. Of course there may have been changes in the mean sea level or odanance datum from which the caluculation have been made. CKP

My source for 521 feet was Jim Shead's web site.

 

However, I bow to your direct knowledge and involvement with this canal and am happy to correct it!

[John Orentas]

When I used to moor on the Peak Forest I would always make a point of casually mentioning to visitors that Squeers was the highest canal boat in the UK, I was a bit annoyed when those upstarts on the Huddersfield and then the Rochdale stole that honour away from me..

 

Rochdale, the Everest of the canals, never once heard that one..

 

Not sure how the Caldon figures in all this, I seem to remember Bosley Locks with a rise of 118 feet might have an influence.

[mayalld]

When I used to moor on the Peak Forest I would always make a point of casually mentioning to visitors that Squeers was the highest canal boat in the UK, I was a bit annoyed when those upstarts on the Huddersfield and then the Rochdale stole that honour away from me..

 

Rochdale, the Everest of the canals, never once heard that one..

 

Not sure how the Caldon figures in all this, I seem to remember Bosley Locks with a rise of 118 feet might have an influence.

 

Hmm.

 

If the top pound of the PF is 521 feet, Bosley is 118 feet, and Hall Green is 1 foot, the Summit of the T&M would be 402 feet.

 

Martin's site has it at 408 feet. That's a whole 6 feet of discrepancy!!

[magpie patrick]

Hmm.

 

If the top pound of the PF is 521 feet, Bosley is 118 feet, and Hall Green is 1 foot, the Summit of the T&M would be 402 feet.

 

Martin's site has it at 408 feet. That's a whole 6 feet of discrepancy!!

 

Unless the bottom pound of the Macc slopes than this would suggest Bosley are around 109 feet: 108 feet would be 9 feet per lock which, without measuring, looks about right.

 

Not sure where John Orentas is going with Bosley and the Caldon Canal: the only thing they have in common is they both climb from the T and M summit, and as the Caldon has ninne locks to the Hazlelhurst summit, including the tiddler at Caldon Place, it's not surprising that it's lower.

 

Two questions, both of which I've thought about but no definitive answer, (1) how many summits really are summits, that is, the only way off them is down? and (2) longest sequence of locks in one directions, i.e. keep going up and never doing a lock downwards.

 

And not often discussed but there aren't many sumps (oinly word I can think of for the opposite of summits) are there? Excluding todal locks I think there is less than half a dozen

[John Orentas]

I only mentioned Bosley because Magpie had the Caldon in the mix with the Macclesfield and others.. From the Macc. summit you drop down typ. 110 feet to the T & M level and eventually up just a few locks to the summit level of the Caldon, so the difference in elevation must be considerable..

 

By definition all canals must have a summit level from which the water flows down to feed the canal though it can be sometimes shared by another canal, and by extension the only way off a canal is 'down'.. Never heard of a sump, 'sumps need pumps'.. All canals must have their water supply fed to the summit level.

 

The Rochdale is I suppose a classic 'summit canal', 55 locks up from Manchester and 36 locks down to Sowerby Bridge, when I do boat trips on the summit I tell everyone "Spit into the canal here and it will either go down that lock to the Mersey and the Irish Sea or down that lock to the Humber and the North Sea.

[magpie patrick]

I only mentioned Bosley because Magpie had the Caldon in the mix with the Macclesfield and others.. From the Macc. summit you drop down typ. 110 feet to the T & M level and eventually up just a few locks to the summit level of the Caldon, so the difference in elevation must be considerable..

 

By definition all canals must have a summit level from which the water flows down to feed the canal though it can be sometimes shared by another canal, and by extension the only way off a canal is 'down'.. Never heard of a sump, 'sumps need pumps'.. All canals must have their water supply fed to the summit level.

 

The Rochdale is I suppose a classic 'summit canal', 55 locks up from Manchester and 36 locks down to Sowerby Bridge, when I do boat trips on the summit I tell everyone "Spit into the canal here and it will either go down that lock to the Mersey and the Irish Sea or down that lock to the Humber and the North Sea.

 

Hi John,

 

I obviously wasn't clear: some summits, like the Trent and Mersey, are the summit for that canal or that route but you can actually climb from them, in this case going up to Marple for example, whereas others have no way off other than down, the Macc/Peak Forest being one such.

 

There may be a better word than "sump" but I'm referring to canals such as the Warwick Level of the Northern Grand Union where the only way off them is up: there aren't many of those. Anyone got another word for those?

 

And yes, the Caldon is lower, about 40 feet lower than the Macc/PF, but still pretty high at 484 feet above sea level

[Hairy-Neil]

By definition all canals must have a summit level from which the water flows down to feed the canal though it can be sometimes shared by another canal, and by extension the only way off a canal is 'down'.. Never heard of a sump, 'sumps need pumps'.. All canals must have their water supply fed to the summit level.

 

John, the Mont is a good example of a sump. It drops from Frankton Jct down to Welshpool area, then climbs again to Newtown.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Does anyone know where that ridiculous term for the Rochdale "The Everest of Canals" came from?

BW press office, I think.

[Machpoint005]

Unless the bottom pound of the Macc slopes...

Ha! How do you know it doesn't?

[Hairy-Neil]

BW press office, I think.

 

The same office that came up with, "Putting the can back in canals"......

[John Orentas]

John, the Mont is a good example of a sump. It drops from Frankton Jct down to Welshpool area, then climbs again to Newtown.

 

 

Yes, just taken a look at my Nicholsons, in it's present form I suppose the Montgomery could be described as a canal with two summits, it looks as though the canal originally fed the Guilsfield arm that presumably flowed into the River Severn.. But I know absolutely nothing of the canal(s).

[magpie patrick]

Yes, just taken a look at my Nicholsons, in it's present form I suppose the Montgomery could be described as a canal with two summits, it looks as though the canal originally fed the Guilsfield arm that presumably flowed into the River Severn.. But I know absolutely nothing of the canal(s).

 

That's roughly the idea although the Guildsfield Arm wasn't quite at the bottom. Both ends drain towards the middle and the water drains from the middle to the River Severn.

 

The only other locations I can think of where you have a canal drain instead of a feeder are on the GU: Cosgrove to Fenny and the pound through leamington, and some single ended branches that fall from main lines/summits such as the Caldon at Froghall and the Aylesbury Branch, I haven't included ones that have a way out for boats such as the Rufford Branch.