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Rh Ashton-under-Lyne and Oldham, in the county Palatine of Lancaster,'  and under it the company were empowered to raise £60,000, in six hundred shares of £100 each, with further power to raise £30,000 among themselves, should the former sum be insufficient; or they may raise the same by mortgage of the tolls and duties.

In the following year the company applied again to parliament, and obtained an act, entitled,  'An Act to enable the Company of Proprietors of the Canal Navigation from Manchester, to or near Ashton-under-Lyne, and Oldham, to extend the said Canal from a place called Clayton Demesne, in the township of Droylsden, in the parish of Manchester aforesaid, to a place on the Turnpike-Road in Heaton Norris, leading between Manchester and Stockport, opposite to the House known by the Sign of the Three Boars' Heads, and from, or nearly from, a place called Taylor's Barn, in the township of Reddish, to Denton, at a place called Beat Bank, adjoining the Turnpike-Road leading between Stockport and Ashton-under-Lyne; and also from the intended Aqueduct Bridge, at or near a place called Waterhouses, in the parish of Ashton-under-Lyne aforesaid, to a place called Stoke Leach, at Hollinwood, in the township of Oldham aforesaid;'  under this act, they were authorized, in addition to the main line and branches above-mentioned, to make a branch from Clayton to near the town of Stockport; another branch from the last-mentioned branch, to the River Tame, near Beat Bank: and one other branch from the aqueduct over the Medlock near Waterhouses, to Hollinwood. Of those intended works, the branch to Beat Bank alone remains unexecuted. By this act, the company were authorized to raise an additional sum of £30,000, in shares, among themselves. After having executed a considerable portion of the works, which they were authorized to do, under the two preceding acts, and having expended the several sums of money which they were empowered to raise, the proprietors found it necessary again to apply to parliament for further powers, when they obtained a third act, entitled,  'An Act to enable the Company of Proprietors of the Canal Navigation from Manchester, to or near Ashton-under-Lyne and Oldham, to finish and complete the same, and the several Cuts and other Works authorized to be made and done by