Bridgewater canal manchester

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hoppym27

Well-Known Member
Has anyone rode the towpath along the Bridgewater canal in Manchester all the way to Leigh? Can you get onto the leeds liverpool canal at that end?
 

TrishE

Über Member
Looking at the Nicholsons you can get onto the Leeds and Liverpool canal. I just looked at another book too that said the towpath is good :smile:
 

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Katherine

Guru
Moderator
Location
Manchester
Has anyone rode the towpath along the Bridgewater canal in Manchester all the way to Leigh? Can you get onto the leeds liverpool canal at that end?
You can certainly ride all the way to Leigh but there is a small section between Boothstown and Astley that has yet to be upgraded so it can be quite rutted and muddy. The rest of it is a lovely route. Yes it does connect with the Leeds and Liverpool in Wigan.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Rather than starting a new thread on the subject, I'll piggyback on this one ...

I want to cycle from Walkden station to Dunham. (I have noticed that there are cheap, regular through trains from the Calder Valley to Walkden and it looks like a good way for me to go in future for rides into Cheshire.)

I plotted a route on cycle.travel which uses long lengths of the Bridgewater canal - LINK - and I wondered if @Katherine, @skudupnorth and any other locals would give it the once over for me - TIA.

I want to keep away from roads as much as possible and this route looks ideal, but I am concerned about conflicting information I have seen about the canal towpath. The canal website suggests that some bits of it have been upgraded to become the 'Bridgewater Way' but other bits have not and may not be suitable for a road bike. A photo on the site shows the towpath suddenly changing from a good wide surface , to a narrow muddy one. I'd prefer to avoid that kind of thing. (It may be an old photo, no longer representative of what is there now?)

Bridgewater canal towpath.JPG


So... are all parts of my route open to bikes and have good surfaces suitable for road bikes? I am also slightly concerned about security, having read about nasty attacks on cyclists on the Fallowfield loop. I'm hoping that this route goes through areas that are not as dodgy!
 

skudupnorth

Cycling Skoda lover
You will have no issues on this route. From the station you are close to NCN55 which ends at Monton. From there it’s just a short hop over the canal bridge and on to the Bridgewater Way. The part of the path from Monton is not my favourite bit because sometimes has a bit of glass or dog crap there but once you are past that all is good. You will have to hit the road over the ship canal but will rejoin the canal path towards Stretford.
Are you planning on staying on the canal all the way ?
You can join the Trans Pennine trail just after Stretford which is where the path is not as smooth as the canal but still passable on a road bike ( I have done it on my fixie with 23’s fitted) this will get you to Dunham
 

Katherine

Guru
Moderator
Location
Manchester
Oh, FFS - what is the matter with some people!!! :eek: :cursing:
That was October 2017.
Do not be put off.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
You'll find scum everywhere. Back in 1974 my long-haired pals and I were waiting for a train at Gosforth station when some skinheads threw a milk bottle, which smashed to a thousand pieces on the bench as we jumped away from it.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
You'll find scum everywhere. Back in 1974 my long-haired pals and I were waiting for a train at Gosforth station when some skinheads threw a milk bottle, which smashed to a thousand pieces on the bench as we jumped away from it.
I suppose so. I was just thinking back to one of my forum rides when a feral youth tried chucking a tree branch through the spokes of one rider's front wheel in Padiham (fortunately, he missed), and later a psycho motorist attempted to knock another of our group off his bike*** (the car made glancing contact with the rider's right knee, but he managed to stay upright).




*** At the end of the ride when discussing the incident, I suggested that it might have been just awful driving rather than malice, but apparently the driver swerved left when overtaking and was 'giving the finger' at the time so it did sound malicious.
 
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