The whole canal was designated as a Conservation Area by Macclesfield Borough Council in 1975 and a large number of its structures have been Grade II listed in recognition of their historic importance.

[6] The site of the lock remains as a narrows just in front of the junction bridge,[7] and is overlooked by a canal warehouse with two storeys, built in 1835.

[8] As the canal reaches Hawk Green, just to the south of Marple, a huge mill with six storeys is situated on the east bank.

Near Higher Poynton, the canal is wider, as it has suffered from subsidence from a nearby coal mine, which resulted in the banks and bridges being raised on several occasions.

[12] On the outskirts of Bollington, the canal passes Clarence Mill, another huge building which now houses small industrial units.

It is actually the widened end of the feeder from Bosley Reservoir, the first to be built to supply the canal, which is located some distance to the south east.

In Congleton, it crosses the Dane in Shaw Brook, from which a good view of the tall viaduct that carries the railway across the valley can be had.

A writer in the Derby Mercury newspaper in 1793 suggested a link from the Caldon Branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal to Macclesfield wia Leek.

[21] A rather more serious proposal was made in 1796, when gentlemen from Congleton, Leek, Macclesfield, Manchester, Stockport and the West Riding employed the engineer Benjamin Outram to survey possible routes.

In 1805 and 1806, they attempted to find the original papers from Outram's surveys, and hoped that the Trent and Mersey might support their proposal for a canal from Marple to Lawton, via Macclesfield.

A bill was brought before Parliament and passed there but it was thrown out in the House of Lords by the influence of the Duke of Bridgewater, whose canal had been opened a short time earlier.

They would attempt to gain the cooperation of any owners of land through which the canal would pass, and would invite the towns of Congleton and Stockport to join them in the venture.

Tenders received for the work varied wildly in price, and he chose those that he thought best, as well as contributing £1,000, but after that, the civil engineering was managed by William Crosley, a job which he carried out to a high standard.

By the time the committee met in 1828, much of the northern end of the canal was nearing completion, and contracts for the three sections from Bosley to the Trent and Mersey had been awarded.

There were problems with the Trent and Mersey length, with water seeping up and dislodging the puddle clay which made the canal watertight.

The committee made another inspection in June 1829, when good progress was reported on most fronts, although there were issues with the embankments at Bollington and Dane-in-Shaw, and with the aqueduct which carried the canal over the River Dane at Bosley.

Upon arrival, a salute was fired, and the Band of the Macclesfield Cavalry played God Save the King, before the proprietors and dignitaries retired to the Town Hall for dinner.

A separate dinner was held at the Bulls Head Hotel for thirty of the contractors, while 500 workmen and 200 boatmen and drivers were each given half-a-crown (12.5p) to spend.

[2] When originally built, the chamber was very long, and both companies installed a set of lock gates, enabling them both to collect tolls.

Each company built a cottage overlooking the locks, the Macclesfield Canal constructing theirs of stone, while the Trent and Mersey used brick.

Crosley had left the employment of the canal company on 24 June, but had produced a detailed report on the condition of the works before he left, in which he stated that there was no observable settlement in the embankments, the stonework of the locks, bridges and aqueducts was still good and showing no signs of failure, and the reservoir at Bosley had been filled to the top of several occasions, without any sign of leakage.

Edward Stanley, the chairman of the management committee, reported that trade was brisk, and that 98,201.5 tons of cargo had been carried in the first full year of operation (March 1832-March 1833), generating an income of £6,117.

Initially proposed as a canal, and later as a railway, the plan was eventually dropped after it met with a less than enthusiastic reception from shareholders who were seeking a more substantial dividend, rather than re-investment of profits, and from the mine owners.

The railway company began operating as a carrier soon afterwards, on a fairly small scale, and this continued until 1894, by which time most of the trade was in cotton.

In 1905, boats using the canal carried coal, raw cotton, grain, which was supplied to textile and flour mills, and stone, but by this time traffic volumes were small.

It took three weeks to repair the breach, and around 100 men were employed to fill the gap with 160 boat loads of clay puddle and other materials.

[35] There had been some leisure use of the canal since the end of the First World War, with the High Lane Arm acting as a base, where a number of boathouses were built.

Hall Green Stop Lock survives, with its rise and fall of about a foot (0.3m); this was to prevent the Trent & Mersey losing water to the Macclesfield in the event of a breach in the latter.

This led to a number of people suggesting that the route could be made fully navigable, to effectively create a new cruising ring.

The main obstacle to overcome would be the difference in height between the start of the feeder and the level of the lake, as the earth dam is 63 feet (19 m) tall.