The Rochdale Canal was opened on 21 December 1804, having taken ten years to build, and provided a trans-Pennine link between Manchester, where it connected with the Bridgewater Canal and Sowerby Bridge, where it connected with the Calder and Hebble Navigation.

Nevertheless, trade flourished and between 1827 and 1829, the canal carried 498,402 tons per year, which generated tolls of £36,794.

[1] With prospects good, the canal committee considered a branch to Heywood in August 1832, and then sought estimates of the cost of construction and the likely traffic.

The opening was performed by the committee, who travelled along the new canal in a boat called The Rochdale.

[2] When the Manchester to Littleborough Railway opened in July 1839, the company ran a packet boat for passengers from Bluepits Station, in Castleton, to Heywood Wharf.

The service lasted until late 1840, as the railway company was building a branch line which included a station at Heywood close to the terminal wharf.

There was another swing bridge over the entrance to the Heywood Branch, although the towpath was on its north bank.

The canal continued to the south of the motorway route, and then turned to the north west, to reach a bridge at Hope Street.

It had become cabinet manufactory called Excelsior Works by 1910, and remained so in 1929, but like Hope Mill was disused in 1937 and demolished in 1956.

The canal from here is lost beneath a small industrial estate although the route can be seen in maps.

The re-opened Rochdale Canal no longer passes through the site of the junction, as the cost of building a navigable culvert through the M62 embankment would have been prohibitive.