Marple Circular
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| Lime Kilns Marple visited on this walk |
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| 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.
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| The Canal at Marple |
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| Crossing the bridge |
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| Taking a break |
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| Along canal towpath |
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