Caldon Canal

The first plans by the proprietors of the Trent and Mersey Canal Company to construct a canal from the summit level to Leek were considered in January 1773. This would have been a tub-boat canal, as the boats were designed to carry just 5 tons, and rather than using locks, inclined planes were to be used at points where the level of the canal needed to change. Two more plans were considered, and the third included extra reservoirs which would supply the summit level of the existing main line. At a similar time, an independent company was planning a link to Leek, but the Trent and Mersey managed to block this. Having secured contracts with several owners of limestone quarries in the Cauldon…

The canal begins at Etruria, Staffordshire, next to the top lock of the Stoke flight on the Trent and Mersey Canal. A statue of James Brindley, the engineer for the Trent and Mersey main line, stands near the junction. Following the course of the infant River Trent, the waterway climbs to a summit level at Stockton Brook, which carries it over the watershed between the Trent and Churnet Valleys. Thereafter the canal descends through locks at Hazelhurst and then Cheddleton, into an initially broad flood plain. At about a mile above Consall Forge, at Oak Meadow Ford Lock, the canal locks down into the River Churnet for about a mile; the reason for this is that the valley at this point is too…