Caldon Canal

The Caldon Canal owes its name to the village in the Staffordshire Moorlands where the Caldon quarries are located. The village is in the north-east of the county close to the Derbyshire border. The quarries themselves are part of the limestone district that stretches north to the massive quarries around the Peak District and Buxton. Pitt’s History of Staffordshire (1817) describes Caldon as “a barren and dreary part of the Moorlands . . . with 59 houses, 165 males, 152 females”. In the village, at the time, there was what was described as “an inexhaustible hill of limestone”; interestingly enough, nearly 200 years later, the quarries still have a working life estimated at 170 years.

It was these quarries that attracted the interest of the Proprietors of the Navigation from the Trent to the Mersey in the early 1770s as their Trent & Mersey Canal was being built. They could see the enormous commercial potential of a link for the quarries with the T&M and thus the industrial markets of Staffordshire and Cheshire. The limestone is particularly hard, with a fine grain. It is a light grey carboniferous mountain limestone, and was very much in demand for the manufacture of chemicals and as a fluxing agent in iron production.

The T&M proprietors were also aware of the considerable difficulties in connecting the quarries, 1,100ft above sea level, with a canal at Froghall, only 433ft above sea level and more than 3½ miles away. James Brindley surveyed a possible route for the Caldon Canal in 1772, shortly before his death, and his work was continued by Hugh Henshall. John Gilbert, a local Staffordshire land owner and one time agent to the Duke of Bridgewater, had an interest in part of the quarries as well as in part of the nearby Cheadle coalfield. With financial backing from himself and other colliery owners in Cheadle, he was able to influence the proprietors over the intended course of the Caldon.

On 10th April 1776 the T&M proprietors entered into an agreement with the various owners of the limestone quarries around Caldon Low, some of whom held leases from the Earl of Shrewsbury and some of whom owned land in their own right. They obtained the right to extract limestone for a 999-year period, subject to payment of royalty; a variation of that agreement, and a later 1841 agreement, is still in force to-day.

In the T&M Act of 1776, it is recited that “from a Survey lately made it appears that a Branch may be made from the said Canal [the main line of the T&M] on the south side Harecastle, by Hanley, Norton & Cheddleton to Froghall from whence a railway may be made to or near several Lime-works and Limestone quarries at or near Caldon whereby the conveyance of coals, lime, limestone, timber and other goods wares and merchandizes will be facilitated and rendered less expensive and the Utility of the Undertaking authorised by the said former Acts will be increased to the Public”.

Crucial to the success of this commercial venture was the ability to engineer a railway system to convey limestone from the quarries. Three different arrangements were tried before the final scheme, in the form of a cable railway, was introduced in 1847. This was used until the incline closed in 1920. The original wagonway of 1778 proved too poorly engineered, and was replaced in 1785. By 1816 a 530-yard canal extension, including a 76-yard tunnel, led to a new wharf area, with a stocking ground for limestone, ten wagon Tipplers and four lime kilns. Changes to the wharf occurred in 1852, following closure of the Uttoxeter Canal and the building of new lime kilns, and in 1876 with the re-modelling of the basin. Froghall Wharf was connected by standard gauge railway in 1852 to the Churnet Valley Railway (mainly on the bed of the former Uttoxeter Canal), thereby providing an alternative to canal transport for the movement of limestone.

The pottery manufacturers J&G Meakin Ltd established a major factory alongside the Caldon Canal in 1859 in the Ivy House area of Hanley, manufacturing ironstone china and semi-porcelain “for all markets”. The firm appears to be the one manufacturer that ran a small fleet (3–4 boats) until 1932. Here we see its last boat, Alice, c.1950, being loaded with crates of pottery protected by straw. Alice was originally registered as Stoke 890 on 8th November 1934, and, following its conversion to a motor boat, was re-registered on 1st June 1944 as No 958. It was taken out of use in 1953 and sold on 14th June 1954. Barrels containing pottery stand in the foreground on the wharf side. David Salt Collection

The railway swing bridge at Endon c.1952, looking north-east towards Leek. The bridge carried a standard gauge line from the Stoke to Leek railway line (off picture, to the left) over the Caldon and a further ¼ mile to the colour mills of Harrison & Co. The mills opened there c.1871 and originally had their own wharf, but a railway line was laid c.1885 after which the wharf was little used. By the time of the photograph, the railway line had become derelict. Author’s Collection

Output from the original quarries started to reduce by the early 1900s as they became worked out; they were finally closed in 1931. Two new quarry faces opened between 1905 and 1908, half a mile from the original quarries, and output from these, which were connected by a new standard-gauge line to the North Staffordshire Railway system, had by 1920 eliminated the need for moving limestone over the incline railway for onward transport by canal. The loss of the contract in 1919 for traffic of some 50,000 tons of limestone per annum to the Brunner Mond chemical works in south Cheshire sounded the death knell for canal traffic from Froghall.

Whilst traffic from Froghall Wharf underpinned the viability

The Caldon and adjoining canals as portrayed by Bradshaw around 1830. The Waterways Archive, Gloucester

of the Caldon until 1920, and fully justified the far-sighted nature of the proprietors’ decisions in the 1770s, the canal’s fortunes were given a boost with the discovery of haematite iron ore in 1853 between Consall and Froghall. Total output between then and 1881 was estimated at 6 million tons, with annual output averaging 415,964 tons between 1856 and 1869. No fewer than ten wharfs were opened between Consall and Froghall. At the peak, there were at least 30 boats a day, mainly to south Staffordshire. In those early years, this traffic was substantially greater than the limestone traffic from Froghall.

The warning sign that was displayed at Stockton Brook from 1961, when British Waterways declared the Caldon closed, until 1974 when it was reopened. The Waterways Archive, Gloucester

The 1841 Hazelhurst Aqueduct, seen here c.1952 looking towards Leek, carries the Leek Canal over the Caldon. Author’s Collection

Meakin’s wharf in September 1951, behind which can be seen several of the bottle kilns known as ‘The Seven Sisters’. In the foreground are two boats loaded with pottery, in straw-lined crates and in barrels. In the background are several lorries that will have brought clay stone to the factory. The two boats in the picture are both Anderton boats: the one on the right is Bedford, first registered at Stoke on 30th November 1937 as No 937; the boat on the left bears the fleet No 229. Author’s Collection

The original economic rationale for the Caldon had been the movement of limestone, but the rapid expansion of the pottery industry in the 19th century led to heavy demand for sites on both sides of the canal in the Etruria, Shelton, and Hanley corridor. The one pottery and three flint mills established there by 1857 had grown to no fewer than 17 potteries and five flint mills by 1898.

As these businesses eventually reduced their dependence on the canal, both for incoming materials and for despatched product, so the fortunes of the canal declined. Ultimately, the canal became disused in the 1950s, although access to Hazelhurst remained possible for pleasure craft. Following campaigning by the Caldon Canal Society, British Waterways restored the entire Caldon Canal, including part of the Leek Canal, by 1974. The top lock of the Uttoxeter Canal and the basin below were restored by the Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust in 2005.

Caldon Canal Traffic

The story of boat traffic on the Caldon Canal can be broken down into four parts.

• The activities at Etruria Wharf, officially on the Caldon, but serving both the Trent & Mersey and the Caldon;

• Traffic coming into the Potteries and being moved on the canal;

• Internal traffic;

• Traffic from the canal to Etruria and beyond.

Etruria Wharf

Etruria Wharf was the base for several carriers from the outset. In 1818 there were four carriers working from here: Heath, Tyler & Danks serving the Midlands; Hugh Henshall & Co (owned by the T&M) serving Liverpool; Soresby & Flack serving London and Hull; and James Sutton and the Shardlow Boat Co serving Liverpool, Manchester and Gainsborough.

By 1834 Soresby & Flack had ceased to operate from here. By 1851, the remaining carriers were the North Historical Profile Staffordshire Railway & Canal Carrying Co (who had taken over the business of the Henshall company) and James Sutton. By 1862, the NSR&CC and Anderton Co were the carriers operating from Etruria, but the NSR&CC ceased its carrying activities in 1895. Alexander Reid & Co (renamed the Anderton Company in 1836) had established a presence at Etruria Wharf at least by 1834, and, by 1851, the Anderton Company/Duke of Bridgewater Trustees operated a daily service to Manchester, Liverpool, Runcorn, and Warrington that continued at least until 1940.

This postcard view c.1905 says “Icebound”, although it is more likely the lack of water in the canal that is stopping the boats. The location is Denford, between Hazelhurst and Cheddleton, looking towards Hazelhurst. In the background is Bridge 38. There are three maintenance boats in view, the first one with a small crane possibly being a spoon dredger. Author’s Collection

In 1866 the Shropshire Union Railways & Canal Co established warehouses at Etruria, and elsewhere in the Potteries from the early 1860s, as they sought to compete, using their Ellesmere Port warehouse, for the growing and lucrative clay and flint traffic into the Potteries and the return traffic of iron and crated earthenware; these arrangements ceased in 1921. In terms of facilities at Etruria Wharf, there were numerous warehouses and wharfs, together with a dry dock and other canal maintenance buildings. The only manufacturing activity that was carried on at the wharf was earthenware (by the late 1790s), replaced by flint grinding from 1834 and carried on by successive organisations for a further 130 or so years.

Traffic to the Caldon

From the very opening of the T&M and the Caldon, freight from Liverpool, mainly clay from Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset and flintstone from Kent, was coming in to three newly established wharfs at Etruria, Stoke and Longport. The banks of the Caldon Canal in Hanley, especially the 2-mile section from Etruria Wharf to Ivy House, experienced significant development of a wide range of different industries.

In the late 1790s a pottery had been opened at Etruria Wharf by John and Richard Mare, but by 1834 the site had been redeveloped into a flint-grinding mill operated by John Goodwin. In Hanley alone, John Ridgway opened its Cauldon Place pottery in 1802, Dresden Colour Mill was opened by Job Meigh between 1829 and 1834, Hedge & Co opened a brewery in 1888, Hanley Borough electricity works opened in 1894, Mousecroft brick and marl operations started up in 1866, Ivy House Paper Mill was built by Fourdrinier in 1827, and a tramway from Hallfield Colliery fed the canal from the early 1850s.

Massive potteries were built by the Meakin family in 1859 and 1883, whilst Johnson Brothers built three factories in the late 1880s, all of which were located by the canal and generated substantial two-way traffic. Other industrial developments alongside the canal included two wharfs to serve Northwood Colliery (opened by 1865) with two separate railway connections to the canal, and the Foxley Arm that connected in 1860 with Norton Green colliery and with what was to become Hardman’s chemical works.

The predecessor to British Aluminium established a factory in 1888; the privately built Sparrow & Hales Canal of 1784 served Cockshead Colliery and lime kilns at Norton; Buller’s porcelain insulator works opened in 1920; at Stockton Brook (1853) and Wall Grange (1849) two Staffordshire Potteries water pumping stations with coal wharfs were built; the stone transhipment chute at Endon opened in 1919; at Cheddleton the paper works opened in 1797, the brewery by 1814, and the flint mills had been expanded and linked with the canal in 1783; at Consall the lime kilns opened in 1819, and the flint mills by 1816; and brick works were established at Stockton Brook in the early 20th century, Wall Grange in the early 1890s, and at Froghall in the early 1870s.

Alongside the canal and the Churnet railway, Thomas Bolton & Sons established a brass and copper works in 1890, and coal for its boiler house came by canal until the mid-1940s. The industrial activity at Froghall Wharf, on the back of the limestone arriving from the quarry, included stone crushing, lime burning, and the loading of limestone into narrowboats for Brunner Mond in Cheshire, for Shelton Iron & Steel works, and for numerous iron works in south Staffordshire.

The rural nature of the Caldon can be seen in this delightful 1920s view near Milton of Prosper carrying a load of bricks from the Stockton Brook brickworks to a building site in the Potteries. The boat, a Number One, is owned by John Tomkinson of Stockton Brook, a third generation boatman whose grandfather, James Tomkinson, carried on the Uttoxeter Canal. Author’s Collection

This section of the 1816 Caldon Canal Estate Plans shows the junction between the ‘Grand Trunk’ (ie Trent & Mersey) Canal and the Caldon, the layout of Etruria Wharf, and the start of the Caldon. The buildings in red and the sections in brown belonged to the canal company. Bottom left is the timber yard which in later years became a dry dock; centre left is Etruria basin and warehouse. In the centre can be seen the Vale Pleasant Potteries which, by 1834, had been replaced by a flint mill; flint milling continued there for a further 130 years. Note the basin on the Grand Trunk; this was filled in by 1850, making way for offices. The vacant land facing the lime kilns on the arm of the Grand Trunk became, in 1857, the Jesse Shirley bone works. British Waterways

The Endon Tippler, seen here in 1919, transferred limestone from the new quarries at Caldon Low into waiting boats to carry to the iron and steel works of north Staffordshire or to the chemical works of south Cheshire. The tippler enabled the quarries to send large volumes of limestone to customers who wished to continue to receive it by canal, but without placing excessive demands for water on the canal system. This was one of a set of four photographs taken at what was possibly a demonstration or trial; the NSR canal maintenance boat, in the foreground, seems badly loaded. Manifold Collection

What started off as a canal to serve Caldon quarries became, over the next century, an economic corridor of considerable significance. The amount and the nature of traffic coming by the canal to each of the individual businesses varied. The volume of clay, flint stone and coal into Hanley and Shelton was substantial. The several flint mills and brickworks received raw materials by canal as did the brewery, the chemical works, and the aluminium works. Coal was carried to the paper works at Cheddleton and to Bolton’s copper and brass works.

Internal Traffic

An example of the movement of traffic within the Caldon Canal system itself was limestone carried from Froghall to a number of small lime burners operating along the canal. Apart from at Froghall Wharf, these could be found in Consall, Basford, Cheddleton, Denford, Norton, Hanley and Shelton and, in the early days, at Etruria Wharf.

For the short era of the Uttoxeter Canal, coal was carried from Ford Green Colliery to Uttoxeter, and from the Cheadle coalfield (the Woodhead Colliery) to wharfs at Oakamoor, Alton, Denstone, Rocester and Uttoxeter, and from Hazels Cross Colliery (Consall) to Uttoxeter. Coal was carried to major users such as the water pumping station at Stockton Brook, to what was to become Brittain’s Paper works at Cheddleton, and to Thomas Bolton’s works at Froghall, as well as to the local lime burners.

‘Slop’, the product from the flint mills, was moved from Meakin’s mills at Cheddleton to Hanley, and from Podmore’s mill at Consall to another of its mills at Shelton. From the late 1960s until 1995, Johnson Brothers moved some of their finished production from Hanley to Milton for packing. The extension of the Caldon Canal by 13 miles from Froghall to Uttoxeter was proposed in 1796, ostensibly to convey coal from the Cheadle and Kingsley coalfield and brass and copper for works at Oakamoor and Alton, and limestone for the local lime-burners. However, its promotion was a countermeasure for the intended Commercial Canal, a wide waterway from the Mersey to London that was proposed to pass through the Cheadle coalfield, Uttoxeter, and Burton.

Froghall Wharf from the 1816 Estate Plans, reflecting how much the New Wharf had developed since the canal extension of 1785 and the opening of the Uttoxeter Canal in 1811. The Caldon can be seen centre left crossing to the triangular basin at New Wharf. This area contained offices, stables, a warehouse, six lime kilns, limestone pens, a smithy, and a wharf manager’s house. Bottom right is the “Rail Road to Caldon Low” (the 1804 plateway); at this point a winding drum lowered the loaded limestone wagons the final 65 yards to the canal. In the centre is the start of the Uttoxeter Canal, the top four locks, and ‘Uttoxeter Basin’, restored in 2005. British Waterways

The Froghall to Uttoxeter scheme was approved by Parliament in 1797; however, after the defeat of the proposals for the Commercial Canal, enthusiasm diminished for the Uttoxeter Canal and this, in part, explains why it was not completed until 1811. Despite the 1797 Act, alternative proposals were developed for railway schemes from Froghall to the edge of Uttoxeter, and an 1802 Act gave powers to vary the original course of the Canal at Alton following representations from the Earl of Shrewsbury, the local landowner. Construction did not start until 1805, and, after further delays at Alton, another Act was passed giving authority for a loan of £30,000 to complete the works.

The Canal was 13 miles long and had 17 locks. It descended through the attractive wooded valley of the River Churnet, and passed over the river at the top of the purpose-built Crumpwood weir just south of Alton. It passed through gentle countryside to Quickshill (Denstone) and to Rocester before reaching Uttoxeter. This market town had a population of 4,500 at the time, with very little industry.

The valley of the River Churnet had provided the water power for industry in the 18th century – the colour mill at Froghall, the Cheadle Brass Company’s works at Oakamoor and Alton – and the promoters of the Uttoxeter Canal sought to develop commercial traffic on it. Tramroads were built to link the canal with the colour mill, and the copper and brass works at Oakamoor. A tramroad with inclined plane was built in 1808–9 linking Woodhead Colliery, on the Cheadle coalfield, with a wharf at Eastwall on the canal. This operated until 1847 when the railway construction started on the Churnet line.

Coal wharfs were established at Quickshill, astride the Ashbourne to Cheadle turnpike road, at Rocester, and at Uttoxeter. Lime kilns were erected alongside the canal at Oakamoor, Rocester and Uttoxeter. The area around the canal basin at Uttoxeter, and where the canal offices and warehouse were built, became known as The Wharf, as it is to this day. It quickly became the centre of new industrial activity for the town: a gas works (opened in 1839), a dockyard and two boat builders, two sets of lime kilns, an acid works, and four coal agents (all representing collieries alongside the T&M and Caldon canals).

There were various proposals to extend the canal – Rocester to Ashbourne in 1813, Rocester to Little Eaton in 1824, and, finally, in 1839, a plan to link Uttoxeter with Burton – but all came to nought.

In terms of carriers, the Derby Directory of 1827 refers to the fact that Douglas & Co had boats and fly boats that left Derby for Uttoxeter three times a week – a long journey via Rugeley, Stoke, and Cheddleton; Pigot in 1834 states that Sutton & Co and Matthew Heath worked fly boats to the Potteries every Monday and Friday.

Following the acquisition by the NSR of the T&M in 1847, part of the canal bed was used in the construction in 1848–9 of the Churnet Valley Railway, and of the Froghall Junction Railway in 1852 that connected with Froghall Wharf and the new lime kilns there. Although the canal officially closed in January 1849, contractors’ plans for building the railway indicate that the canal had ceased to operate as a through route from Froghall at least six months before then. Construction of the railway at Froghall Mill started in August 1848, whilst the diversion of the River Churnet at Crumpwood Weir took place between July 1848 and February 1849. After the opening of the Churnet line, a spur off it at Uttoxeter was built on the bed of the canal so as to terminate at its warehouse and wharf, and this railway line operated for some years.

Surviving features of the Uttoxeter Canal include a house and stables at Oakamoor, remnants of Jackson’s Lock and California Lock just south of Oakamoor, Seventy Bridge just south of Alton, stagnant water between Alton and Denstone, Crumpwood Weir, the water feature in the JCB Training Centre at Woodseats (Rocester), and the towpath and canal bed (wide for turning) at Spath on the outskirts of Uttoxeter. The offices and warehouse at Uttoxeter were demolished as recently as 2003 to make way for housing. Rangeley & Dixon 1819 mileposts can be seen just south of Oakamoor and at tennis courts at Denstone. The bricked-in arch of the canal bridge under the Ashbourne to Cheadle turnpike road can still be seen at Oakamoor. Uttoxeter Basin, between the canal’s 1st and 2nd locks at Froghall Wharf, was restored in 2005, as well the 1st lock.

Oakamoor in the 1940s. The bridge carried the Ashbourne to Cheadle turnpike road over the former Uttoxeter Canal. After the closure of the canal, a railway line was laid into what became known as Jimmy’s Yard, and this was used to provide coal and other provisions to the local community; this line remained in situ until the early 1940s. A small section, now disused, can be seen in this picture along with an abandoned railway wagon. Wilson Family Collection

Uttoxeter Canal closure notice from the Macclesfield Courier of 6th January 1849. Macclesfield Library Service

Cheddleton Wharf c.1897 looking towards the Cheddleton first and second locks and the chimneys of Brittain’s paper mill. The boat on the left is Success and on the right is Perseverance, owned by T.S. Williams & Co of Middlewich and registered at Stoke-upon-Trent No 694 on 28th June 1906. Both are returning empty to collect a load of limestone. A laden limestone boat can be seen passing through the first lock. It is thought that the bricks on the towpath are destined for the construction of the 1899 County Lunatic Asylum (later known as St Edward’s), and would have come by canal, probably from the nearby Wall Grange brickworks. Author’s Collection

Outbound Traffic

Limestone from the Caldon quarries was carried off the canal to major industrial users in north and south Staffordshire and mid-Cheshire and, from 1850 to 1880, ironstone to mainly south Staffordshire. Although the opening of the Churnet Valley Railway in 1849 led to a significant proportion of mineral traffic going by rail, a substantial amount still went by canal. From Hanley and Shelton, traffic in crated pottery for the colonies and the USA, as well as for the domestic market, was considerable. In volume terms, canal traffic from other firms, in the form of the movement by canal of beer, bricks, paper tissue, and slip (from flint mills) was comparatively small but no less important.

Leek Canal Traffic

Traffic along the 3¼-mile Leek Canal consisted mainly of coal to Leek gas works (opened in 1826). Up to four coal merchants were located at Leek Wharf for over 100 years, but with the arrival of the Churnet Valley Railway at Leek in 1849 and the establishment of railway sidings adjacent to Leek Wharf, the amount of coal coming in by canal diminished sharply.

Pickford & Co were carriers to Leek in the 1820s to 1840s, as were James Sutton & Co and Matthew Heath & Son. Pickford offered carriage from Leek to London, Liverpool and Manchester, at least from 1828, but by 1860 this service had been replaced by the Anderton Company three days a week; this lasted until the 1870s. In the final years before canal closure the Anderton Company service was advertised but scarcely used. The last commercial traffic, tar from Leek to Milton, ended in 1939. The Leek Canal was formally abandoned by Act of Parliament in 1944 after a major review by the LMS of its canal system in the midlands and the north. Restoration of part of the canal was completed in 1974, but subsequent defects found in Leek Tunnel led to major repairs which were completed 1984.

The Flint Lock and Consall Flint Mill c.1910 looking towards Froghall. The mill at that time was owned by John Goodwin. In the foreground, right, is a tub of crushed flint, alongside a timber crane, on a narrowgauge tubway. Large rocks of flint can be seen, far right, and in the background, centre. Three photographers capture the moment as a narrowboat enters the lock. The buildings in the background date back to 1655, and were converted from an iron slitting forge to flint grinding with the arrival of the canal. A second set of flint mills had been sited 300 yards nearer Froghall by 1816, known as Consall New Flint Mills, but these were demolished to make way for the diversion of the canal with the construction of the Churnet Valley Railway line in 1847–8. Manifold Collection

Leek Wharf c.1947, looking east to the canal terminus. On the right can be seen the canal warehouse and, on the left, in the background and dominating the skyline, is the imposing 1826 Leek gas works. Several coal merchants operated on the wharf from the offices on the left. By this time the Leek Canal had been legally abandoned under the 1944 LMS Act. W.S. Heaton

RUDYARD LAKE

The origins of Rudyard Reservoir, or Rudyard Lake as it became popularly known, were with the water shortages that the T&M and the Caldon were experiencing in the 1780s and 1790s as traffic increased. There was a water shortage every year between 1788 and 1796, and in 1785 and 1795 all the reservoirs and even the Caldon Canal were “drawn completely out”. The practical and political solutions were, respectively, the construction of a new reservoir and the building of a canal to the important market and manufacturing town of Leek. The 1797 Act met both these objectives.

 The lake is 2¾ miles north west of Leek and is approximately 1¼ miles long. It is supplied by a feeder from the River Dane to the north, and in turn it feeds the Leek Canal, near its terminus, by a channel to the south. Its capacity, according to a 1942 LMS survey, was 121,795,000 cu ft. (At that time the capacities of the other two reservoirs serving the T&M were 40,700,000 cu ft at Knypersley, and 21,570,000 cu ft at Stanley.) 

 It was the arrival in 1849 of the North Staffordshire Railway’s Churnet Valley line, which ran along the east side of the lake, that transformed the fortunes of both the reservoir and the local villages. The NSR saw the potential for the lake as a leisure attraction for the inhabitants of the industrial Potteries, Manchester and the Lancashire mill towns. It was successfully opposed by Fanny Bostock (see ‘Personalities’) but over the years the NSR saw ways of attracting tourists to the ambience of Rudyard. Eventually, the passing of the 1904 Act provided the full commercial opportunities it had been denied for 50 years. Its hotel, converted from the early 19th century water bailiff ’s house, was substantially enlarged and is still a popular hostelry. Two water bailiffs’ houses still survive; one was built in the early 19th century on the Dane feeder, and the other, built at the side of the Lake Dam in 1852, is still occupied by a British Waterways canal engineer. 

 Land owners had riparian rights but, apart from the T&M and the Earl of Macclesfield, only one person had a boathouse on the lake until the end of 19th century. More were then erected on narrow strips fronting the lake that had been sold under an 1885 auction, following the break up of the Fanny Bostock estate. Only a small number of the original boathouses survives, but, in recent years, many new ones have been built in very attractive surroundings.

 The golden era for the lake was until 1915, stimulated by the 1904 Act, and it remained popular during the 1920s Leek Wharf c.1947, looking east to the canal and 1930s. The NSR invested in cafés, a landing stage for terminus. On the right can be seen the canal a boat concession, hotel expansion, the purchase of a warehouse and, on the left, in the background and farm estate and Cliffe Park Hall as a ‘golfing ground’, and dominating the skyline, is the imposing 1826 Leek the opening of a new station at the north end of the lake. gas works. Several coal merchants operated on the Locals and newcomers alike invested in tea rooms, boarding wharf from the offices on the left. By this time the houses and weekend holiday accommodation, so as to Leek Canal had been legally abandoned under the meet the needs of the large number of tourists that came 1944 LMS Act. W.S. Heaton at weekends, bank holidays, Stoke wakes weeks, and for special events such as regattas.

 Facilities for the public started to run down after the Second World War, and boat hire ceased in 1969. However a sailing club was established in 1957, and a group of Sea Scouts has flourished for over 70 years. In the 1990s, the Rudyard Lake Trust (with which BW is closely involved) was established and this has lead to a substantial renewal of worn-out facilities, including the conversion of the 19th century T&M boathouse into a visitor centre. The reservoir still fulfils its original function, handling the flow of water from the River Dane, via the Dane Feeder, into the lake, and from there into the Leek Canal, thence the Caldon Canal and Etruria Junction.

 

The south end of Rudyard Lake, which was, and still is, a reservoir for the Caldon Canal. This outstanding postcard view, taken in spring 1905, shows a North Staffordshire Railway D Class locomotive presiding smokily over a host of visitors, both in the boats and on the dam to the right. Bank holidays and Stoke wakes week saw up to 2,000 people a day visiting Rudyard. G. Bowyer Collection

The delightful setting of the Churnet Valley, through which passed the Caldon Canal, the Churnet Valley Railway and the River Churnet, is captured in this postcard view c.1905 looking from Consall towards Froghall. It is taken from London Bridge, named after one of the London-based mining companies established between the 1850s and 1880s to exploit the discovery of iron ore in the valley. The wharf on the left hand side was originally used for loading ironstone but in later years, as seen here, was used for loading timber. The ridges on the hillside are former tramways that carried mined ore, and the level section, to the right of the plume of smoke, was the track bed that carried a tramway on to a bridge that straddled the river, railway, and canal. A North Staffordshire Railway B Class locomotive, with an excursion train, completes the picture. Roger Butler Collection

Fleets

Despite the large number of businesses established along the canal, very few operated their own fleets, and those that did had few boats. Information is sketchy at best.

In 1795 contemporary reports indicated that 41 boats were working the canal, nine of which were owned by John Sparrow of the Norton Green (Cockshead) colliery. His boats worked in a radius of 40 miles from the colliery, but ceased when the colliery closed in the mid-1840s. Seven boats were owned by the Caldon Lime Company, which had kilns at Froghall, Basford, and Cheddleton; this company ceased to operate after 1834.

In the ironstone boom of the 1850s and 1860s, it was reported that up to 30 boats a day were working from Froghall to Staffordshire. Brunner Mond used up to ten of its own boats, plus those of Middlewich carriers, to convey limestone to chemical works in south Cheshire as these works became established from the late 1870s onwards.

Thomas Bolton had a fleet of five horse boats, all of which brought coal slack to the boiler house, adjacent to the canal; these boats were all registered at Stoke: Lily of the Lake built in 1908; Nora built in 1913; Beatrice in 1916; Havelock acquired in 1937 from Arthur Johnson of Etruria and possibly replacing an earlier Havelock; and Dora which appears twice in the public health inspection register at Stoke in 1934. This traffic had ceased by the late 1940s and, by 1953, all except Beatrice had been broken up or sold.

G&J Meakin operated a small fleet of boats, bringing in its own clay and flint and despatching its crated earthenware. Cuba was sold in 1932 to the Mersey Weaver & Ship Canal Carrying Co, possibly following the cessation of export traffic to Runcorn two years earlier. In later years, the boats owned were Alice, Westwood built in 1914, and Darlaston built in 1921. Alice and Westwood were taken out of use in summer 1953 and the mid-1940s respectively. Darlaston was sold to the Anderton Company in 1944, and became part of the Mersey Weaver fleet in 1953, before finally being reregistered at Northwich as part of the British Waterways fleet in 1958.

Arthur Carr (left) and George Bevans hard at work around 1910 towing a canal maintenance boat in very muddy conditions at the terminus of the original 1778 canal, the Old Wharf area. In the background is the whitened brick work of the 67-yard tunnel that was the start of the 1785 530-yard extension to New Froghall Wharf. Above the tunnel is the Navigation Inn, and the stables used by the canal horses. Arthur Carr joined the canal company as a labourer at Froghall on 12th November 1897 on a daily wage of 3/2d (16p). Author’s Collection

Milton Princess leaving Johnson Bros factory at Hanley in 1978 with a load of pottery for the 4-mile journey to the company’s packing house at Milton. This was the last of three boats to be specially designed for this internal works traffic that started in 1967 and lasted until 1995. Wedgwood Museum Trust

W. & A.J. Podmore, a firm that owned several flint mills in north Staffordshire, operated one boat, Perpetual, built in 1915, between Consall and its Caledonian Mills on the canal at Shelton. This firm ground Cornish stone and calcined flint at Consall, which were transferred to Shelton in dry and slop condition. Perpetual was cut up in 1953.

George Mellor & Co was a flint grinder based at Etruria Vale by at least 1933; it had several boats engaged in transferring coal and pottery materials to and from the nearby Cockshute railway sidings, its Etruria works and the Stafford Coal & Iron Co at Fenton. Mellor (later renamed Mellor Mineral Mills) operated several boats; Durban was its first and was in existence until the early 1950s. Ribble was built in 1910 by the Salt Union from whom it was purchased by 1936; it was broken up shortly after 1942. Starling was purchased from Cowburn & Cowpar (who had commissioned it in 1936 from Yarwoods) in the early 1950s and sold on after a few years to Joe Prescott at Leigh. Another boat, Havelock, registered in Mellor’s name at Stoke, was inspected at Stoke in 1941.

Primrose Thorley, who owned the lime-burning firm of Bowers & Thorley at Froghall Wharf from 1894, operated one boat, Farmers Friend, carrying lime to local destinations.

PERSONALITIES

John Rennie (1761–1821) 

John Rennie was a distinguished engineer who, after graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1783, gained employment experience with James Watt. He started his own engineering business in London in 1791, and then expanded into civil engineering, particularly the construction of canals. 

He was engaged by the T&M from 1797 and advised on several schemes to improve water supply. The shortage of water arose from the failure of the 1780s reservoirs to supply the T&M adequately and from the increase in traffic on the system (necessitating also the building of the second Harecastle Tunnel) and from the building of the Uttoxeter Canal. 

In 1797 he also approved plans for the Uttoxeter Canal, and in the same year he prepared the detailed specifications for Rudyard dam. He was given responsibility for building Rudyard Reservoir and its 2½-mile feeder to Leek, and was appointed consultant engineer for the Leek Canal. 

In 1801 he advised on the tramway from Etruria Wharf to Hanley. In 1821 he reported to the T&M of the urgent need for a second tunnel at Harecastle, for a second reservoir at Knypersley, and for improvements in the flow of water into Rudyard Lake. He died in December 1821, a few months after a Bill was presented to Parliament to implement these proposals. His work for the T&M was minor compared with the massive engineering projects with which he was associated, for example London Docks, the great breakwater at Plymouth, the Lune Aqueduct, and the Kennet & Avon Canal.

Fanny Bostock (c.1800–1875) 

Fanny Bostock was a member of a long-established farming family in the Rudyard area. She was a first cousin of John Howarth, another prominent local landowner who built, in 1811, Cliffe Park Hall, a castellated mansion set in magnificent grounds overlooking Rudyard Lake. This estate passed to Fanny on Howarth’s death in 1831. Fanny Bostock fiercely attacked the proposals of the North Staffordshire Railway to promote commercial attractions on the lake, and in 1851 she unsuccessfully sought an injunction to prevent a regatta from taking place. There then followed a 4year High Court case, which she won. This restricted the NSR to using the lake for its original purpose as a reservoir. This restriction was eventually removed by the 1904 NSR Act of Parliament, nearly 30 years after Fanny’s death.

Thomas Bolton & Sons Ltd operated a small fleet to bring coal slack from the north Staffordshire coalfield to its boiler house alongside the Caldon Canal at Froghall. Beatrice, named after a member of the Bolton family, is seen new at its wharf in 1916. Beatrice was registered at Stoke as No 777 and was possibly built at Jackson’s boat yard at Norton. The boat on the right is Ethel, and also appears to be in Bolton ownership. Author’s Collection

It was also photographed carrying people on boat trips. Because some lime-burning continued at Froghall after the incline closed in 1920, lime-carrying by canal may have continued for some years after.

The Tomkinson family, beginning with James, were long-established carriers on the Uttoxeter Canal. His grandson John was a ‘Number One’ owner-operator based at Stockton Brook and was photographed carrying bricks from the short-lived Stockton Brook brickworks around 1920. Another grandson, George, operated the last boat to be regularly engaged in the coal trade on the canal; he loaded slack, that had come by motor lorries from Sneyd collieries at Burslem, at Endon Wharf for the short journey to Cheddleton paper mills. This traffic ceased in 1951. Inspection records at Stoke in 1934 and 1935 show John Tomkinson working Victoria, a Runcorn-registered boat, and George Tomkinson working Rembrandt, a Stoke-registered boat.

In more recent years, Johnson Brothers introduced three boats to transfer production between its factories at Hanley and Milton. Milton Maid (built in 1967), Milton Queen (1973) and Milton Princess (1978) worked this traffic until 1995.

There were three boatyards on the Caldon Canal. Two, at Etruria and Cheddleton, belonged originally to the T&M and were in existence by 1816. The third was Jackson’s boat yard, at Engine Lock, established by John Jackson in the early 1850s. He had served his time at the Cheddleton yard. From the mid-1890s until at least 1916, Jackson’s business was carried on by Joseph Monks.

Three external carriers dominated the trade in potters’ materials between Runcorn and the Potteries: the Anderton Company from 1836; the Runcorn-based specialist carrier Potter & Sons (Hanley) from the mid-1890s; and Mersey Weaver from the early 1900s. Potter had around 30 boats, all but four registered at Stoke. Another carrier, the Shropshire Union Canal & Railways Carrying Co, worked potters’ materials into the Potteries from Ellesmere Port from 1865 to 1921. From 1871 the Traders’ (North Staffordshire) Carrying Co opened a warehouse at Anderton, but this firm collapsed in 1874, before the boat lift opened in 1875. This short-lived venture offered a carrying service to 17 destinations on the T&M and to Etruria, Hanley, Cheddleton and Froghall on the Caldon.

The Bowers family were long-established lime burners at Froghall, trading as the Froghall Lime Co, having taken over from the North Staffordshire Railway in 1858. Eli Bowers was joined in partnership by Primrose Thorley in 1894, and this firm continued in business at the wharf until 1920, when the cable incline railway closed and limestone ceased to descend to the wharf. Here we see Primrose Thorley, very smartly dressed, on Farmers Friend, a boat named because he delivered bagged lime to the farming community along the Caldon. This was the only boat operated by the partnership. Author’s Collection