The Macclesfield Canal is a forty two kilometres long canal in East Cheshire. The canal connects to the Peak Forest Canal at Marple Junction then heads more or less South to the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove, passing through Macclesfield on the way. The canal was opened in 1831 following decades of planning and consultation.
The canal, facing competition from the railways, ended up being bought by the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway in 1846. It remained financially viable for many years, commercial traffic continuing on the canal until 1954. The canal became part of the growing preservation movement in the 1960s, though leisure use of the canal had existed since the 1920s, and the canal is now part of the Cheshire Ring.
