
Canals and Waterways
Lost Rivers & Canals
Next tour: No dates yet. Meet: Victoria Station wallmap (within spitting distance of three ancient waterways). What’s lost?: The Tib: gone; the Dene: nowhere to be seen (if it ever existed); Hanging Ditch: dried up. These are just some of the lost rivers and canals of Manchester. We will stay dry, or as dry as we …
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Along the Ashton Canal to the Portland Basin (long tour!)
Next tour: No dates yet. Meet: Malmaison Hotel, No. 3 Piccadilly, time tbc. This is a big one, aimed at all you trekkers. We follow the Ashton Canal, from the city centre, past the steepest street in the world, the oldest skewed bridge in the country, Piccadilly Village, the Chips Building in Ancoats, the old …
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Bridgewater Canal
Next tour: Sunday 17 July 2022. Meet: entrance Beetham Tower, Deansgate, 2pm. Booking: Please press here to book with Eventbrite. About the tour Come with us to explore the waters, banks and history of the Bridgewater Canal, Britain’s first man-made waterway which saw Manchester launch the industrial revolution in the 1760s. The tour begins in …
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Cruise the Manchester Waterways – with Historic Commentary
Next sailings: Awaiting dates. Booking: Please book through www.quaytickets.com, 0843 208 0500. Booking: Please book through www.quaytickets.com, 0843 208 0500. Cost: £18. Meet: At the water’s edge outside the Castlefield Hotel, Liverpool Road. Expert commentary provided: Our popular canal cruise glides along the local waterways to see the stunning sights of Salford Quays and Media City. Illuminating one way …
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The Grand Canals of Manchester (West to Castlefield)
Next tour: Friday 7 April 2023, 11 a.m. Meet: Malmaison Hotel, Piccadilly. Booking: Please press here to Eventbrite. This is a spectacular stroll along the waterways of Manchester, invoking a host of stories industrial and architectural, anecdotal and incidental, as we head west from Piccadilly, along the canals under the …
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Grand Canals East (to Sportcity)
Next tour: Saturday 26 September 2020. Meet: Malmaison Hotel, No. 3 Piccadilly, 2,30pm. Booking: Please press here to book with eventbrite. On the eastern edge of the city centre two canals (the Ashton and Rochdale) and one river (the Medlock) lead through the old industrial heartland. Here are the parts that gentrification hasn’t reached: tumbledown …
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Salford Quays…Old Docks…Media City
Next tour: Saturday 7 May 2022. Meet: Salford Quays Metrolink stop, 2.30pm. Booking: Please press here to book with eventbrite. Huge docks which once harboured the world’s ocean-going liners mow frame gleaming museums of the modern age and the megalithic towers of Media City alongside a world famous canal, as deep as the Suez, …
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Mapping The Medlock – The River That Manchester Forgot
There are three visible rivers in city centre Manchester: the Irwell, the Irk and the Medlock. And it’s the Medlock that we investigate on this tour. The river that Manchester has almost forgotten rises near Oldham and flows westwards through Daisy Nook Country Park (as painted lucratively by L. S. Lowry), past Man City’s ground, …
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River Irwell
It’s the river that divides Manchester from Salford, snaking its way through the centre of the metropolis and almost meeting itself near Salford Crescent. Never a picturesque centrepiece like the Thames or Seine, it was a conduit for goods and products, an outlet for industry, a black, inky artery between factories and mills. But that …
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Along the Manchester Ship Canal
Next tour: 2021, but not sure when yet. Meet: Entrance to the Science & Industry Museum, time tbc. Booking: It’s the world’s greatest waterway, as deep as Suez, as wide as Panama, and it brought the sea into Manchester – almost as far as the city centre. The Manchester Ship Canal was the last great …
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