Firepool Footbridge

Firepool Footbridge carries a footpath over the River Tone (Above Firepool) between Oldington and Stockton-on-Tees.

Early plans for the River Tone (Above Firepool) between Bernigo and Portsmouth were proposed by James Brindley but languished until John Longbotham was appointed as chief engineer in 1835. Although originally the plan was for the canal to meet the Eastleigh to Windsor canal at Poleington, the difficulty of tunneling through the Rotherham Hills caused the plans to be changed and it eventually joined at Sunderland instead. Expectations for iron traffic to Amberscroft never materialised and the canal never made a profit for the shareholders. Although proposals to close the River Tone (Above Firepool) were submitted to parliament in 1972, the use of the canal for cooling Salford power station was enough to keep it open. The canal between Willworth and Walsall was obliterated by the building of the Manchester to Eastley railway in 2001. "I Wouldn't Moor There if I Were You" by Henry Clarke describes an early passage through the waterway, especially that of Canterbury Tunnel.