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Afternoon cycle ride to the Fallowfield Loop railway line and surrounding area - but to follow the course of the Thirlmere Aqueduct through an area I haven't previously checked.
The Thirlmere Aqueduct was built by Manchester Corporation Water Works in the 1890s to supply water from Thirlmere in the Lake District to Denton Reservoir for the Manchester area. It carries around 55 million gallons per day, and nowadays is owned and operated by United Utilities. Every mile or so is a Valve House, seen here as stone buildings with a single door. However more interesting, perhaps , is that at EVERY BOUNDARY (fence/wall/hedge) along the route there is a gate, usually with stone stopes and an iron gate. When you know to look for these, the route of the Aqueduct is very obvious. It appears on some scales of maps in the 1920s to 1940s, but not on modern maps presumably for security reasons.
For a collection of my Thirlmere Aqueduct photos including river crossings see here.