World Heritage status for Marple Locks?
The Marple Website has long been a champion of Marple's Locks and their importance to our heritage. Since 1998 the Canals and Waterways section of the site has provided a great introduction to the history of Marple's canals and locks, the Grand Marple Aqueduct, and the Lime Kilns. You can even take a Virtual Tour of Marple's Locks online here without leaving your home!
Of course the website was also instrumental in the creation of Lock 17 on Oldknow Gardens!
Bridge No. 1 at Top Lock: Junction of the Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals in Marple
Every one of Marple's 16 real locks is Grade II Listed with a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Marple Aqueduct and the Lime Kilns) at each end of the flight. On route are many interesting listed structures including Marple Wharf, soon to reopen as a heritage cafe and community facility, multiple properties around Top Lock and the Lime Kilns, the Horse Tunnel and Posset Bridge, Oldknow's Warehouse, Brabyns Lodge, two former lock-keeper's cottages, Aqueduct House and the Viaduct. The Marple flight also runs directly alongside the attractions of Marple's Memorial Park and Brabyns Park, and has great walking links to Etherow Country Park and Roman Lakes.
Marple canals and locks 'should be a World Heritage Site'
During a debate in Parliament on funding for the Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals in early November 2024, Hazel Grove MP Lisa Smart made a call for Marple's flight of 16 locks, the aqueduct and the viaduct to be designated as a World Heritage site.
Listen here as Lisa makes the case:
Let's get behind MP Lisa Smart's campaign!
World Heritage status for Marple Locks would be a huge benefit to the community as a whole, boosting local tourism and global interest in the town. It would also help secure the future of Marple's Canals and Waterways so that they can be enjoyed by many generations come.
So it's a no-brainer that the website supports MP Lisa Smart's campaign for World Heritage status!
You can support the campaign too by signing Lisa's Petition.
If you need more convincing:
Listen to Lisa talking to Bob Humphrey-Taylor, one of the Directors of the Marple Wharf Project, about what a great facility the Wharf aims to be for the community, the Locks Petition, the synergy between the two campaigns and how they can work together going forward.
