Bury to Little Lever canal heritage walk

The walk starts at Bury Interchange and within 500 Mts. the disused Bury arm of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal is joined.

The canal was opened in 1796 from Bolton and Bury and linked to the River Irwell in 1808. it was built mainly to carry coal, other cargoes were limestone manure,stone ,sand and slate. Passengers were carried before the railways were constructed.

The route follows the towpath alongside the canal ,at the beginning of the walk it is filled in ,but is in water from near Elton reservoir. The canal from here on is in a pleasant rural setting with many waterfowl to be seen. The canal has silted up in places and reeds and bulrushes have taken over the water course. Swans and other birds have taken advantage and made it their home.

The route follows on through the centre of Radcliffe ,with a chimney reminding its industrial past.further on the towpath renters a more rural setting. Following bridge 17 a particularly pleasant stretch is followed over cobbles alongside a row of terraced cottages and with views over the River Irwell below. A reservoir is passed shortly after with its resident swans, then on past a solitary crane which is used as an icon by the MANCHESTER ,BOLTON AND BURY SOCIETY. The crane was built in 1884 and used to lift containers of coal from boats for the Mount Sion Works below the towpath.

Shortly after, the canal has been dammed to retain water following a breach caused by a collapse of the canal embankment in 1936.The site of the breach is bypassed to continue on the towpath to the site of the Prestolee flight of locks.
A novel "Meccano" bridge is crossed ,this was built to replace one that fell into disrepair.the route descends alongside the flight of locks to view the basin at its foot and inspect the aqueduct and old pack horse bridge over the River Irwell .

Returning to the Meccano bridge ,a double back is made to follow the arm of th Bury Branch at Prestolee. The scene here is very evocotive of when the canal was in working order, as it looks intact, in water with cobbled towpath ,lockeepers cottages and just needs a barge to complete the scene.

The route follows the canal with more swans and wildfowl to its truncated end at Moses Gate Country Park.
From here a bus may be caught to return to Bury or Bolton for connections home.

NOTE : The views shown in way points were taken in 2015.