Reservoir Valves - Buxworth, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 20.118 W 001° 58.215
30U E 568569 N 5910064
These reservoir valves were originally installed in a feeder reservoir for the Peak Forest Canal and other nearby canals.
Waymark Code: WMKYX4
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/17/2014
Views: 2
They are now on display in the historic area of Bugsworth Canal Basin and Tramway Interchange. The basin ceased operations in the 1920s but was renovated and re-opened for leisure boats in 2003.
These reservoir valves were placed here by The Inland Waterways Protection Society Ltd. sometime during the renovation work.
A nearby plaque has the following text.
Todd Brook Reservoir Valves
One of two pairs of draw-off valves installed at
Todd Brook Reservoir to control the supply of water
to the Peak Forest, Ashton and Macclesfield Canals.
The unit consists of two hand operated valves in
tandem, one used as a stop valve and the second
to control the rate of flow to the canal.
Displayed here by
kind permission of
English Heritage
Bugsworth Basin
The 18th Century had seen the development of the canal network in the UK to carry heavy goods, and led to towns such as Manchester become the first large industrial towns.
There was a demand for limestone and grit stone from the nearby quarries to be transported to Manchester and beyond and so the Peak Forest Canal was built with a connection to the Ashton Canal at Ashton-Under-Lyne.
The canal had a series of 16 locks to lift the canal a height of 209 feet from Ashton-Under-Lyne to this point, but the final rise to the quarries was to high for a canal. So a horse drawn tramway was built to form a connection between the canal junction here and the quarries themselves.
Much of the output from the quarries was loaded directly onto the canal boats but there was also a total of 19 lime kilns on this site to process the limestone into quick lime.
The wagons from the tramway took the limestone at a high level to the top of the kilns. After processing the processed quick lime was extracted from the bottom of the kiln and loaded onto the canal boats. A model of the site and information panel on the other side of the canal describe the operation of the site.
The site operated between 1796 until the 1920s. The canal and this basin was closed down and allowed to become derelict. However in the 1960s and 1970s leisure boating became popular and many canals were renovated and re-opened for leisure purposes.
Most of the Peak Forest Canal reopened 1974 and at that time terminated at Whaley Bridge. The remainder of the canal and this basin was reopened in 1999. However a major leak from the canal needed further renovation and it didn’t fully re-open until 2003. Much of the tramway has also been converted into a walking trail.
The basin is now protected as
Scheduled Ancient Monument number 242 under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
It should be noted that the name of the nearby village changed its name from Bugsworth to Buxworth in 1930, but the basin continues to be called Bugsworth basin.