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Reddish aqeduct


crossley

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Was cycling the fallowfield loop the other day, and tracing what is left of the stockport branch canal around debdale park reservoir and north reddish. There was an aqueduct carrying the canal over the railway just before reddish north station. Anyone remember it? Or know what it looked like? Or when it was demolished ?All traces have vanished, no abutments or anything can be seen from the bridge over the railway at reddish electric depot, looking towards reddish north station. Nothing to be seen on Google earth either, it was very close to Beresford crescent apparently. 

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42 minutes ago, crossley said:

Was cycling the fallowfield loop the other day, and tracing what is left of the stockport branch canal around debdale park reservoir and north reddish. There was an aqueduct carrying the canal over the railway just before reddish north station. Anyone remember it? Or know what it looked like? Or when it was demolished ?All traces have vanished, no abutments or anything can be seen from the bridge over the railway at reddish electric depot, looking towards reddish north station. Nothing to be seen on Google earth either, it was very close to Beresford crescent apparently. 

I think you must be in a time warp! Reddish Electric Depot was demolished about twenty years ago, but I know what you mean.

The canal hereabouts was fully dredged as far as Houldsworth Mill ,Reddish in the early 1950's presumably to ensure a water supply to the mill as there was no commercial canal traffic by then. A few years later , the canal was being filled in with the rubble from Manchester's slum clearance program. Infill was complete beyond  the Canal Depot at Gorton which closed in 1962. Then followed the rest of the line to Stockport Junction , filled in with more slums. Destruction of the  Stockport branch was complete by 1965. Remarkably, the  iron Gorton aqueduct(Richard's picture above) is still in good condition, over an electrified railway. The structure was new in 1904 when the GCR quadrupled the railway from Ardwick to Hyde Junction.

But  sorry ,no I don't remember the aqueduct in your OP.

Completely off topic, the Stockport Branch supplied water for the boating lake at Belle Vue Amusement Park via a  half mile pipeline  near Hyde Road, a nice earner for the Railway Co. that owned the canal and later  from 1948, British Waterways.

Bill

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Your best bet would be to try this through one of the railway societies. The line was a joint Midland and Great Central line.

The Midland has an active society with a strong historical research background: http://www.midlandrailway.org.uk/

I don't know much about the Great Central Railway Society: http://www.gcrsociety.co.uk/index.html

Richard

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I used to work down at the bottom of station road in the 1980s, at Rowland grinders, shown as climax works on the map, and remember the hump on station road where the canal bridge was, by adamson containers. Alas reddish electric is no more, a very new housing estate there now. My father remembered it being built early 50`s . Reinstating the aqueduct across a double track railway is going to take some doing, don't think it's going to 're open any time soon. 

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5 minutes ago, crossley said:

I used to work down at the bottom of station road in the 1980s, at Rowland grinders, shown as climax works on the map, and remember the hump on station road where the canal bridge was, by adamson containers. Alas reddish electric is no more, a very new housing estate there now. My father remembered it being built early 50`s . Reinstating the aqueduct across a double track railway is going to take some doing, don't think it's going to 're open any time soon. 

Reopening the Stockport branch of the Ashton canal must rank as the most ridiculous canal reopening proposal of all time.

Cost?  Astronomical.

Tourist potential?  A branch from bandit country into deeper bandit country!

Then I think of the struggles to reopen the Cotswold canals!

George

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Reddish isn't that bad, compared to errm.. no can't see any tourist potential in it either. Might gentryfy the area a bit though, put nelstrops mill and lanky hill on the map.. if we renamed it New Chelsea or something, it might attract rich foreign investors, bit like when they re named ancoats and beswick New islington. Was just wondering like what the aqueduct looked like, the canal pre dated the railway, so it must have been built around 1860s ? 

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  • 2 months later...

We have had this comment sent in by a guest user - I wouldn't normally cut and  paste but the Stockport Branch is of some interest to me and I founf the contribution informative

Yes I have a memory of the aqueduct going over the canal, as a child I lived in Aigburth Grove, Reddish around 1954. The aqueduct was accessed to us at the back of Altcar Grove. 

The aqueduct around the same length as the railway and embankment and had a very low wall. Almost opposite was the rear of Heywood Cranes. The Reddish Station side was only walkable a few yards over the aqueduct, the Heywood side walkable to Hyde Road. From here we had a good view of the Belle Vue fireworks and the big half moon bridge carrying the huge water pipes into Gorton Cemetery.

All the Ground at the back of Heywoods and Wharton Cranes is now an Industrial site. The electric train sheds were derelict around 1990, Somewhere I have some black and white photographs of them derelict at that time.

Hope of some interest.

John 

As an addendum, there is a Manchester and Stockport Canal Society - they are one of my clients and have made some progress in discussions with the local authorities at least as far as making more of the route and possible restoration to Gorton Reservoir

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