Given up on the Marple problem

Published: Thursday, 26 July 2018

THE Canal & River Trust has given up attempting to keep Lock 11 open on the Marple Flight, as the last attempt also proved to be a bodge.

The flight on the Peak Forest Canal is now closed to navigation, so in that area there is the Macclesfield closed, the Huddersfield Narrow closed and with the Marple problem meaning the Peak Forest is closed, Keith Gudgin tells us.

Caved in again

The problem was that one of the lock walls kept moving inwards, and though attempts had been made to push it back, as soon as the jacks were removed, before long the wall caved in again, so the flight is now closed again, with CaRT explaining that it would take two weeks to get the wall back again, which would 'coincide with the decision to also close the Bosley Flight on the Macclesfield to save water, that in fact is already closed!

However CaRT admits that this 'is very frustrating for our customers', but it now means the re-building of the lock walls on Lock 11. However, the last time a lock on the flight had its walls rebuilt it took from September to the following May to complete, so don't plan on using the Marple Flight for a while—a long while.