Stalybridge...

Some 9 miles east of Manchester city centre is the town of Stalybridge. In the late 1700s it became an important centre of textile manufacturing. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal was originally built in 1811 to transport goods from Huddersfield in Yorkshire to Ashton-Under-Lyne in Manchester, bringing in supplies of raw material to feed the developing industry in Stalybridge. As the industry declined, competition from rail and roads led to the canal being closed in 1944. In towns like Stalybridge the canal had been totally filled in. That's how it was when I lived there between 1978 and 1983. At this location a car park had been built on top the canal. Amazingly time was turned back and plans to restore the canal were put in place with work being completed in 2001. Nowadays the canal's role is to provide leisure opportunities for walkers, anglers, canoeists, canal cruisers and many others. A modern sculpture by Cumbrian artist Alan Dawson is set here in the depiction of a pair of lock gates but actually is a working sundial thought to be the largest in the UK.