Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/564

 Lancaster Canal. Its execution was designed to facilitate the transit of goods to and from Preston, and the exportation of such coals as were brought down the Douglas River, which communicates with it near Hesketh.

ROCHDALE CANAL.
34 Geo. III. C. 78, R. A. 4th April, 1794.

40 Geo. III. C. 36, R. A. 30th May, 1800.

44 Geo. III. C. 9, R. A. 23rd Mar. 1804.

46 Geo. III. C. 20, R. A. 21st April, 1806.

47 Geo. III. Cap. 81, R. A. 8th Aug. 1807.

THIS canal commences in the Calder Navigation at Sowerby Bridge Wharf, and runs westward up the vale of Calder, close to that river and the turnpike-road, passing in its course Longbottom, Brearley Mill, Mytholm Royd, May Royd, Hebden Bridge, Mytholm, Underbank, Stoodley and Mill Wood, to the town of Todmorden; passing Todmorden, and bending southwards, it leaves Scatecliffe Hall on the east; thence it proceeds past Gauxholme and Travis Mill to Warland, at which place tile summit level now commences; it then proceeds to Littleborough, Clegg Hall, Belfield and Lower Place, whence a branch goes off to School Lane near Rochdale; the main line next pursuing a southerly direction, passes Castleton Hall, Royal Barn, Mount Pleasant, Stake Hill, Walk Mill and Slacks, to near Failsworth; from the last place it bends a little westward of south, passing Newton, Ancoates and Hardwick Green, to the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal, into which it locks at Castlefield, Manchester; previous to its arrival at which place it is joined by the Manchester, Ashton-under-Lyne, and Oldham Canal at Piccadilly Wharf, being rather more than a mile distant from its junction with the Bridgewater Canal, at Castlefield.

According to the levels exhibited in the original design by Rennie, the rise from the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Sowerby Bridge, to the proposed summit near Travis Mill, is 275 feet, in a distance of about eleven miles and a quarter; and the fall from that point to the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal, at Manchester, is 438 feet 6 inches. It appears, however, from levels recently taken, that it has not been so executed. The rise