Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal (Bury Branch)
The exact dimensions of the largest boat that can travel on the waterway are not known. The maximum headroom is not known. The maximum draught is not known.
This waterway is excluded by default from route planning with the following explanation: "closed"
Relevant publications — Waterway Maps:
- Waterway Routes 01M - England and Wales Map
- Waterway Routes 23M5 - Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal Map (Free Download)
Relevant publications — Waterway Guides:
| Prestolee Junction Junction of Bury Branch with Main Line |
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| Bailey Bridge | 1¾ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Creams Paper Mill | 2 furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Ladyshore Dam | 3 furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Ladyshore Bridge No 15 | 5½ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Mount Sion Steam Crane | 7¾ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Mount Sion Bridge No 16 | 1 mile and 1½ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Nickerhole Bridge No 17 | 1 mile and 3¾ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Scotson Fold Bridge No 17a Footbridge and Pipe Bridge |
1 mile and 6½ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Victoria Street Footbridge No 17b | 2 miles and ½ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Water Lane Bridge (Radcliffe) | 2 miles and 1¼ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Town Wharf (Radcliffe) | 2 miles and 1¾ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Whittaker's No 1 Bridge (demolished) | 2 miles and 3 furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Whittaker's No 2 Bridge | 2 miles and 3¼ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Whittaker's No 3 Bridge (demolished) | 2 miles and 3½ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Withins Bridge No 18 | 2 miles and 6¾ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Rothwell Bridge No 19 | 3 miles | 0 locks | |
| Bank Top Bridge No 20 | 3 miles and 3¾ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Daisyfield Dam | 3 miles and 6 furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Daisyfield Railway Viaduct Carries the Manchester to Preston leg of the National Cycle Network |
4 miles and 1½ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Barlow's Bridge | 4 miles and 2¼ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Bolton Street Bridge | 4 miles and 4¼ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Lower Woodhill Road Bury Arm terminates. End of navigation |
4 miles and 5¼ furlongs | 0 locks |
- Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal Society — associated with Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal
- Website
Wikipedia has a page about Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal
The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, England, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when fully opened, was 15 miles 1 furlong (24 km) long. It was accessed via a junction with the River Irwell in Salford. Seventeen locks were required to climb to the summit as it passed through Pendleton, heading northwest to Prestolee before it split northwest to Bolton and northeast to Bury. Between Bolton and Bury the canal was level and required no locks. Six aqueducts were built to allow the canal to cross the rivers Irwell and Tonge and several minor roads.
The canal was commissioned in 1791 by local landowners and businessmen and built between 1791 and 1808, during the Golden Age of canal building, at a cost of £127,700 (£9.98 million today). Originally designed for narrow gauge boats, during its construction the canal was altered into a broad gauge canal to allow an ultimately unrealised connection with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The canal company later converted into a railway company and built a railway line close to the canal's path, which required modifications to the Salford arm of the canal.
Most of the freight carried was coal from local collieries but, as the mines reached the end of their working lives sections of the canal fell into disuse and disrepair and it was officially abandoned in 1961. In 1987 a society was formed with the aim of restoring the canal for leisure use and, in 2006, restoration began in the area around the junction with the River Irwell in Salford. The canal is currently navigable as far as Oldfield Road, Salford.