Gorton/Openshaw The Demise of the Stockport Branch Canal

The Demise of the Stockport Branch Canal through Gorton and Openshaw.
Music: Waterways Lament by The Boatmen from the 1975 album Straight From The Tunnel's Mouth (Songs From The Inland Waterways).
Photos from the Manchester photographic archive.
Most photos taken in 1960 with some from High Bank taken around 1910.

[@darren6531]

Thanks so much for sharing. I was brought up on openshaw village from the early 80s. And knew the path as the yellow brick road. At 3.35 in looks like clayton in the background. I also remember the stonewall that went around.

[@paulmason6474]

I lived in Gorton over 50 years ago. I used to Gorton Tank , and Sunny Brow Park. We were moved to Chorlton On Medlock- slum clearance.

[@cphawud8242]

This is great .i live near vana street school and attended it in the 80s. I walk over that aqueduct over the train tracks nearly every day. I always wonder how it looked back then. Thanks for posting😊😊

[@user-xq6se9uc1g]

I have lived in both Gorton and higher Openshaw in my time

[@kevinmorris173]

I lived in higher openshaw off louisa street

[@decooconnor6254]

I lived on Walmer street Abbey hey from 1980s to 2023, I always herd the stories of the canal in Abbey hey, walked down it many times but not as the canal, as the yellow brick rd, great video as I've never seen how the canal was thank you

[@JohnWalker-ho4gl]

I remember a canal running under the bridge at Hyde Road/Reddish Lane in the early sixties. Didn’t ever know where it ended as it meandered around the back of Debdale Park and could only be seen easily from the upper floor of a 210 bus ! Never saw a boat on it, and after a few years it dried up and became overgrown.

[@jimbrocklehurst6678]

Remember walking along it as a kid in fifties in Openshaw, but , just like all the businesses that used to exist alongside it long gone.😢

[@MrWhothefoxthat]

openshaw lad here born in store street 1960, i fell in that canal a few time collecting sticklebacks. then down to ancoats for a tetanus needle.

[@MashUp-ut6jx]

The photo at

[@damianleah6744]

They flagged it in the late 1970s , which got stolen, so they had shale over it. As kids we called it the Yellow Brick Road. 😂

[@chorlton4]

no real sense of where this canal started. or finished, just folk singing and still pictures,

[@barryshaha6686]

vatrna st. schl