Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal (Main Line)
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.
It has a junction with the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal (Bury Branch) at Prestolee Junction.
Notable features of the waterway include Margaret Fletcher Tunnel
The waterway passes through Bolton
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:
| Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal - River Irwell Junction | |||
| Bloody Bridge The old bridge has been replaced with an arched timber structure, incorporating elements of the old Lock 3. |
a few yards | 0 locks | |
| Margaret Fletcher Tunnel (southern entrance) | ¼ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Margaret Fletcher Tunnel (northern entrance) | ½ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Middlewood Deep Lock No 1 | ½ furlongs | 0 locks | |
| Middlewood Basin No 1 | ¾ furlongs | 1 lock | |
| Middlewood Basin No 2 | 1 furlong | 1 lock | |
| East Ordsall Lane Bridge | 1¼ furlongs | 1 lock | |
| East Ordsall Lane Lock No 3 | 1½ furlongs | 1 lock | |
| Salford Tunnel Lock No 4 (narrows) The position of the original Lock 4 |
2 furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Salford Tunnel Basin | 2¼ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Salford Tunnel No 1 (southern entrance) Limit of Navigation |
2¼ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Windsor Bridge (Salford) | 6¾ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Park House Road Bridge | 2 miles and 3¾ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Agecroft Road Bridge | 2 miles and 7½ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Lumn's Lane Aqueduct (demolished) | 3 miles and 4¾ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Hogg's Bridge | 4 miles and 3 furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Clifton Viaduct A Grade II listed stone structure crossing the River Irwell and the canal |
4 miles and 3½ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Fletcher's Canal Junction Junction with the disused Fletcher's Canal |
4 miles and 4¼ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Pack Saddle Bridge | 4 miles and 4¼ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Clifton Aqueduct Crosses the River Irwell |
4 miles and 4½ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Phillips Park Motorway Bridge | 4 miles and 7¾ furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Rhodes Lock No 7 | 5 miles and 4 furlongs | 2 locks | |
| Kilcoby Bridge | 5 miles and 6½ furlongs | 3 locks | |
| Giant's Seat Lock No 8 | 6 miles and ½ furlongs | 3 locks | |
| Giant's Seat Lock No 9 | 6 miles and ¾ furlongs | 4 locks | |
| The Horse Shoe Inn | 6 miles and 6 furlongs | 5 locks | |
| Ringley Canal Bridge | 6 miles and 6¼ furlongs | 5 locks | |
| Ringley Road Bridge | 6 miles and 7 furlongs | 5 locks | |
| Ringley Lock No 10 | 6 miles and 7½ furlongs | 5 locks | |
| Ringley Lock No 11 | 6 miles and 7¾ furlongs | 6 locks | |
| Appleyard Bridge | 7 miles and 4¼ furlongs | 7 locks | |
| Silver Hill Bridge | 7 miles and 5¾ furlongs | 7 locks | |
| Prestolee Aqueduct Crosses the River Irwell. |
7 miles and 6¼ furlongs | 7 locks | |
| Prestolee Locks Nos 12, 13, and 14 | 7 miles and 7 furlongs | 7 locks | |
| Prestolee Locks Nos 15, 16, and 17 | 7 miles and 7½ furlongs | 10 locks | |
| Meccano Bridge | 7 miles and 7¾ furlongs | 13 locks | |
| Prestolee Junction Junction of Bury Branch with Main Line |
7 miles and 7¾ furlongs | 13 locks | |
| Prestolee Road Bridge | 8 miles | 13 locks | |
| Nob End Cottages | 8 miles and ¾ furlongs | 13 locks | |
| Salt Wharf | 8 miles and 3¼ furlongs | 13 locks | |
| Hall Lane Aqueduct (demolished) | 8 miles and 6¾ furlongs | 13 locks | |
| Fogg's Aqueduct (demolished) | 9 miles and ¼ furlongs | 13 locks | |
| Smithy Bridge (Bolton) | 9 miles and 5½ furlongs | 13 locks | |
| Dam Side Aqueduct (demolished) | 9 miles and 7 furlongs | 13 locks | |
| Burnden Railway Viaduct | 10 miles and 3¼ furlongs | 13 locks | |
| Church Wharf End of navigation |
11 miles | 13 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.