Bugsworth Basin

As you approach Bugsworth Basin along a narrow straight length of canal you pass some canal cottages,

then the grander Canal House, home and office of the wharfinger, the manager of the canal basin. He would have been responsible for overseeing the delivery and collection of the goods coming into and leaving the basin.  He would also collect tolls for the Peak Forest Canal Company from the cargoes leaving the basin. The guaging lock was right outside his house.

Alongside the wharves there were warehouses used for storing goods such as cloth, raw cotton, dyes and various other general goods and food brought to Bugsworth by boat then transported along the tramway running out to mills and villages further up the valley.



There were also storage sheds for limestone, and kilns for making lime. The limestone was quarried at Dove Holes and brought along the tram way where it was either loaded straight onto boats, or crushed for ballast, or burnt before being transported by narrowboat.

 The remains of limekilns can be seen here behind the boats.

We walked along the tram way to Chapel-en-le Frith, some of the original stones that supported the rails can clearly be seen on the way. The loaded stone wagons on the tram way would run down by gravity, ponies would pull the wagons on the return journey.

Recognition for the historical importance of the site, brought back into use by the Inland Waterways Protection Society.

 

                                      Basking in the sunshine was this little beauty.