Stroll

Took a late afternoon/early evening stroll with youngest. Conscious she needed some peace & quiet as well as getting outdoors, we parked in Marple and enjoyed a loop down past Roman Lakes before climbing steeply uphill to the Upper Peak Forest Canal, walking along it westwards into Marple & halfway down it's flight of Locks back to the car.

Blip collage consists of (top) a Roman Bridge spanning the River Goyt , (bottom left) Floodgates Cottage - built to house the keeper of the sluice gates that supplied the water to nearby Roman Lakes, and (bottom right) a narrowboat slowly chugging past us towards New Mills.

Roman Lakes are two disused millponds built to supply water to nearby Mellor Mill. When the mill burnt down in 1892, the ponds were repurposed for leisure. The valley they sit in is flanked by trees and is thus very peaceful!

The cottage at the sluice was built in the style of a turnpike toll house because that was partly its intended purpose. Mill owner Samuel Oldknow hoped the road through the valley would become a turnpike road and began to charge for its use, however those plans were scuppered when Strines Road was built adjacent instead. A Shunpike it did not become though, as the tolls remained in force until four years after Oldknow's death, when a local protestor broke the gate (here here).