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Marple Circular - Saturday 8th February 2020

Marple Circular


Lime Kilns Marple visited on this walk

All set to go

Our group of walkers set out on the 4.5 mile walk around the Marple area on the day before storm Ciara hit.

The walk started and ended at the Crown inn at Hawk Green, SK6 7HU. We walked up to The Ridge Methodist Church, in use for over 170 years, which afforded an excellent view of the countryside towards Stockport. We dropped down to the Peak Forest Canal which runs from Whaley Bridge. The Canal was under construction from 1794 to 1805. This canal is joined by the Macclesfield Canal at Marple. The Canal was primarily built to transport bulk manufactured goods and raw materials. Of particular note was the limestone brought from the quarries in Dove Holes in the Peak District.

Our walk along the canal past some of the 16 locks which form the Marple Flight of Locks. The locks have one of the steepest rises in Britain, 209 feet over a distance of 1 mile. The route took us to the nearby remains of the Marple Lime Kilns which are now protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The kilns were built between 1797 and 1802 by a cotton manufacturer, Samuel Oldknow. Oldknow had links to our church’s area as he had a bleaching plant in Heaton Mersey and lived in Upper Hillgate in Stockport. The limestone kiln workers lived in cottages built into the bank above the kiln tunnels. 1000’s of tonnes of limestone and coal were loaded into pots at the top of the kilns from barges moored in a spur of the Canal. You can view some remains of the kilns in a small park which conveniently provided benches were we could have our refreshment break.

From there, our route took us through the Memorial Park, part of the Middlewood Way and skirted the golf course back to the Crown Inn where we had a nice lunch.



The Canal at Marple

Crossing the bridge

Taking a break

Along canal towpath















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