Exploring Engineering: the Peak Forest Canal

Overview

Join the ICE Manchester branch as they explore the Peak Forest Canal and learn about the variety of engineering heritage in the area. 

The guided tour will be led by New Mills resident (and ICE Fellow), Kathleen Harrison, who has a passion for industrial heritage and engineering, and spent time working for British Waterways in the early 2000s. She has researched both the history of the canal and Bugsworth Basin, and the events that led to the incident at Toddbrook Reservoir in 2019.

The walk will include the Toddbrook Reservoir – constructed to feed the canal and the site of the well-known 2019 incident that led to the evacuation of parts of Whaley Bridge; Bugsworth Basin – one of the largest and busiest inland ports in its heyday, connecting gritstone and limestone quarries in Derbyshire with Manchester; and New Mills – where we will investigate the various structures and mill buildings still found in the Torrs along the River Goyt.

The walk is 5 miles in total, and will start at Whaley Bridge railway station with the option to end at Bugsworth Basin (2 miles) or continue to New Mills where directions will be given to two stations (3 miles).

Please meet at the Whaley Bridge station car park at 10.45. We will depart for the tour at 11.00.

Getting there

• Whaley Bridge and New Mills Newtown are on the Buxton line between Manchester Piccadilly and Buxton.
• New Mills Central is on the Hope Valley line between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield.

This event is open to all, so please feel free to bring along friends and family. The track is suitable for all, although people in wheelchairs or with pushchairs may struggle in some parts.

Programme