He also selected which of the contractors who tendered for the job should be awarded the contract, but his involvement then ceased, and the construction was supervised by William Crosley, the resident engineer.

The quality of the workmanship was excellent, and by the time the canal opened on 9 November 1831, the total cost was only slightly more than the estimate, at £320,000.

Like many of Telford's designs, it used cuttings and embankments to maintain as straight and level a course as possible, and this enabled all the locks to be built as a single flight, although there was also a stop lock where the canal joined the Hall Green Branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal at Hall Green.

The twelve locks are spread over a distance of just 1 mile (1.6 km), and raise the level of the canal by 118 feet (36 m) to the 518-foot (158 m) contour, which it then follows to Marple Junction.

There are some secluded moorings by the locks,[4] which are suitable for standard narrow boats, up to a maximum size of 70 by 7 feet (21.3 by 2.1 m).

The locks are built of rusticated red gritstone, and most are grade II listed structures.

The locks were equipped with side ponds to save water, but these were taken out of use many years ago, although they still function as overflow channels.

By careful design of the size and level of the ponds, those at Bosley managed to re-use about 40 per cent of the water in this way.

Although the paddle gear was beyond repair, enough of it was left to see that it included a counterbalance mechanism, and the stonework of the pond was still in good condition.

A stone culvert runs under the towpath to feed the water into the side pond, which also has an overflow weir at its lower end.