Your floating hotel on the Canals and Rivers of the UK

Our guide to the waterways of the UK in detail.

The Rochdale Canal.

N.B. The Rochdale canal forms one of the great canal routes across the Pennines. Since at present we have no plans to use it, these notes only deal with the section in Manchester.

The Manchester section of the Rochdale is one of the most spectacular stretches of Urban canal in the UK. In the course of nine broad locks, very heavy to work, the canal climbs from it's Castlefields junction with the Bridgewater canal up to the junction with the Ashton canal. Some of this stretch actually passes through the basements of the high office blocks which for much of the length rise up on either side of the canal to create a canyon like effect.

Throughout the length city life in the raw goes on around you as you pass by.

Places to visit near the canal.
N.B. Near means within a couple of miles, not all are adjacent to the canals.

Manchester museum of science and Industry. The museum is partly based in the buildings of the oldest passenger railway station in the world. The huge, 7½ acre site has five historic buildings packed with fascinating exhibitions, hands-on galleries, historic working machinery and superb special exhibitions.

Urbis This is a new kind of museum, set in a dramatic glass building rising high above the centre of Manchester. Interactive exhibits lead you on a journey exploring life in different cities around the world. Urbis focuses especially on the cities of Los Angeles, Manchester, Paris, Sao Paolo, Singapore and Tokyo.

Manchester Museum Explore the world here with its 4 floors of displays and exhibitions in 15 galleries featuring collections from all over the world.

Manchester United Tour and Museum. The tour takes you behind the scenes of the famous club and lets you go pitch side and through the players' changing rooms and players' lounge. The museum is impressive with tons of silverware, interactive displays and a very moving exhibition on the Munich disaster. Please contact in advance to book a tour.

Manchester Cathedral. Come and look around some of the finest medieval carving in Europe and a whole wall of twentieth-century stained glass by the artist Anthony Hollaway. Next door to the Cathedral, on Cateaton Street, is the stunning new Visitor Centre, with hi-tech, interactive exhibition about the cathedral and its links with the city, community and the wider world.

Some pictures of this canal?

Pictures of the Rochdale canal.

A history of this canal.

Find our information about other canals and rivers on the canal index page.

We will not be on this canal in 2008

If you have any questions then do ring us on 07977 229103
or email us at martinreed@reedboats.co.uk