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Uttoxeter Canal

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74-733: The Uttoxeter Canal pronounced (listen) was a thirteen-mile extension of the Caldon Canal running from Froghall as far as Uttoxeter in Staffordshire , England . It was authorised in 1797, but did not open until 1811. With the exception of the first lock and basin at Froghall, it closed in 1849, in order that the Churnet Valley line of the North Staffordshire Railway could be constructed along its length. The railway has since been dismantled and there are plans to reinstate

148-427: A hydrogen combustion engine which aims to be cost effective by reusing parts from the company's Dieselmax engines. JCB Insurance Services is a fully owned subsidiary of JCB that provides insurance for customers with funding from another fully owned subsidiary, JCB Finance. In April 2006, JCB announced that they were developing a diesel -powered land speed record vehicle known as the ' JCB Dieselmax '. The car

222-610: A 2.5-mile (4 km) stretch of the canal from its factory in Milton to a new packaging plant near the Ivy House lift bridge in Hanley. The experiment was a success: transport by water reduced costs by 50 per cent and diminished the number of breakages of wares. Operation continued until 1990, becoming one of the last commercial narrowboat runs. Because the Caldon Canal was promoted and built by

296-522: A boat rally at Endon in May 1971, to publicise the need to restore the canal, and in February 1972 the government introduced a scheme to help local authorities to fund work on local facilities that were visually unattractive. Called "Operation Eyesore", it offered grants of up to 85 per cent for the work. Everything was now in place for the restoration, which was officially announced on 22 August 1972. Restoration of

370-428: A day were moved from the quarries to the canal. Traffic gradually moved away from the canal to the railways. In 1904, Endon basin was built, where limestone brought from the quarries by the railway could be transferred to boats. One of the major users of the limestone, based at Sandbach, closed in 1920, and the cable railway to Froghall closed in the same year. Limestone was no longer transhipped at Endon from 1930, and

444-629: A factory was opened in Brazil . In 2005, JCB bought a company, purchasing the German equipment firm Vibromax . In the same year, it opened a new factory in Pudong , China. Planning of a new £40M JCB Heavy Products site began following the launch of an architectural design competition in 2007 managed by RIBA Competitions , and by the next year, the firm began to move from its old site on Pinfold Street in Uttoxeter to

518-608: A preserved railway, the Churnet Valley Railway . Further south, at Denstone, several buildings including a church have been built on the line of the canal. Incidentally this branch line had the first automatic, train-operated level-crossing in the UK, at Spath , just outside Uttoxeter. A few bridges from the Uttoxeter branch remain, with the occasional 'milepost', and Uttoxeter still has an area called "The Wharf". The Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust has put forward plans to re-open

592-516: A serious impact on the profitability of the Trent and Mersey Company if it had been built. Powers to alter the proposed route at Alton were included in the Trent and Mersey Canal (Railways) Act 1802 ( 42 Geo 3 . c. xxv), but because the new canal was not expected to be profitable, construction was delayed. Ten years after the act was passed, work began under the direction of the canal engineer John Rennie , with

666-504: A speed of 350.092 mph (563.418 km/h). In December 2000, JCB was fined €39.6M by the European Commission for violating European Union antitrust law . The fine related to restrictions on sales outside allotted territories, purchases between authorised distributors, bonuses and fees which restricted out of territory sales, and occasional joint fixing of resale prices and discounts across different territories. JCB appealed

740-510: A tub-boat canal, as the boats were designed to carry just 5 tons, and rather than using locks, inclined planes were to be used at points where the level of the canal needed to change. Two more plans were considered, and the third included extra reservoirs which would supply the summit level of the existing main line. At a similar time, an independent company was planning a link to Leek, but the Trent & Mersey managed to block this. Having secured contracts with several owners of limestone quarries in

814-584: A website dedicated to promoting constructive play and outdoor activities for kids. Many of the vehicles produced by JCB are variants of the backhoe loader , including tracked or wheeled variants, mini and large version and other variations, such as forklift vehicles and telescopic handlers for moving materials to the upper floors of a building site. The company also produces wheeled loading shovels and articulated dump trucks. Its JCB Fastrac range of tractors, which entered production in 1990, can drive at speeds of up to 75 km/h (40 mph) on roads and

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888-506: A £600M loan in emergency financial aid from the UK government, during the coronavirus pandemic, despite its ultimate ownership being in the Netherlands and having reported a record £447M profit the previous year. Its chief executive Graeme Macdonald said: “Although not a public company, we are eligible for CCF because of our contribution to the UK economy. We don’t expect to utilise it in the short-term but it gives us an insurance policy if there

962-448: Is grade II listed , is around 33 yards (30 m) long, with abutments at both ends. Water drops 5 feet (1.5 m) vertically, and then down an inclined slope. Just to the south of the weir, the lock keepers cottage, which had been derelict for many years, was sold in August 2018 and was undergoing renovation in early 2019. There was a water pumping station to the north of the weir, which

1036-517: Is a British multinational manufacturer of equipment for construction , agriculture , waste handling , and demolition . It was founded in 1945 and is based in Rocester , Staffordshire , England. The word " JCB " is also often used colloquially as a generic description for mechanical diggers and excavators , and the word even appears in the Oxford English Dictionary , although it

1110-460: Is a branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal which opened in 1779. It runs 18 miles (29 km) from Etruria , Stoke-on-Trent , to Froghall , Staffordshire. The canal has 17 locks and the 76-yard (69 m) Froghall Tunnel. The first plans by the proprietors of the Trent and Mersey Canal Company to construct a canal from the summit level to Leek were considered in January 1773. This would have been

1184-509: Is further disruption from or second spike or other impact around the world.” JCB is a significant donor to the UK Conservative Party . Between 2007 and 2017, JCB and related Bamford entities donated £8.1m in cash or kind to the party. Between 2019 and 2021 JCB donated a further £2.5m. In 2016, Anthony Bamford donated £100,000 to Vote Leave , the official pro-Brexit group, and wrote to JCB's 6,500 staff explaining why he supported

1258-470: Is powered by two modified JCB 444 diesel power plants using a two-stage turbocharger to generate 750 bhp (560 kW), one engine driving the front wheels and the other the rear wheels. On 22 August 2006 the Dieselmax, driven by Andy Green , broke the diesel engine land speed record, attaining a speed of 328.767 mph (529.099 km/h). The following day, the record was again broken, this time with

1332-592: Is still held as a trademark. Joseph Cyril Bamford Excavators Ltd. was founded by Joseph Cyril Bamford in October 1945 in Uttoxeter , Staffordshire, England. He rented a lock-up garage 3.7 by 4.6 m (12 by 15 ft). In it, using a welding set which he bought second-hand for £1 from English Electric , he made his first vehicle, a tipping trailer from war-surplus materials. The trailer's sides and floor were made from steel sheet that had been part of air raid shelters . On

1406-625: Is ultimately controlled by “Bamford family interests”. According to Ethical Consumer, JCB has six subsidiaries in jurisdictions considered to be tax havens , in Singapore , the Netherlands , Hong Kong , Delaware and Switzerland . On 12 February 2020, the United Nations published a database of all business enterprises involved in certain specified activities related to the Israeli settlements in

1480-547: The British Waterways Act 1983 . Under the act, a total of 82 route miles (132 km) were upgraded to Cruising Waterway standard. In 2003, many years of restoration work came to a close as Froghall Wharf, the southern terminus, was reopened to vessels. The work included a new wharf, refurbished toilet facilities and a new visitor centre. A disused lock, actually the first lock on the Uttoxeter Branch (see below),

1554-570: The Conservative Party in the run up to the 2010 election, making it the largest donor. Ownership of the company which has never filed accounts is disputed by the Bamford brothers. According to a Guardian report, much of the Bamford money was held in shares in offshore trusts. JCB Service, the main JCB holding company, is owned by a Dutch parent company, ‘Transmissions and engineering Netherlands BV’, which

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1628-583: The Occupied Palestinian Territories , including East Jerusalem , and in the occupied Golan Heights . JCB has been listed on the database in light of its involvement in activities related to "the supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements and the wall , and associated infrastructures". The international community considers Israeli settlements built on land occupied by Israel to be in violation of international law . In October 2020,

1702-669: The Uttoxeter Canal , it ran from Froghall as far south as Uttoxeter in Staffordshire and had 17 locks. The canal was never a commercial success and in 1849 much of it was filled in by the North Staffordshire Railway Company and converted into the NSR Churnet Valley line from Leekbrook to Uttoxeter (which itself was finally closed for goods traffic in 1988). This line is still open as far south as Froghall, as

1776-455: The 13-mile (21 km) canal opening on 3 September 1811. It is sometimes referred to as a branch of the Caldon Canal. 19 locks were required to drop the level of the canal as it passed down the valley of the River Churnet. Froghall Basin was the transshipment point for limestone brought from Caldon Low quarries, a few miles to the east. The limestone was carried along a plate tramway, one of

1850-423: The 9-foot (2.7 m) difference in height, and will enable salmon, trout, grayling and chub to colonise 4.3 miles (7 km) of river above the weir. The structure was operational by September 2019. [REDACTED] Media related to Uttoxeter Canal at Wikimedia Commons 53°01′32″N 1°57′46″W  /  53.0255°N 1.9627°W  / 53.0255; -1.9627 Caldon Canal Caldon Canal

1924-766: The British government decided to investigate a complaint that JCB’s sale of equipment to Israel did not comply with the human rights guidelines set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development . The UK National Contact Point (NCP), part of the UK’s Department of International Trade, agreed to review a complaint against JCB submitted by a charity, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights. JCB said it had no “legal ownership” of its machinery once sold to Comasco, its sole distributor of JCB equipment in Israel. In 2020, JCB received

1998-556: The Caldon branch. It would also have included a reservoir at Rudyard, but the plan was short-lived, as the Trent and Mersey succeeded in getting their bill passed when they submitted it to Parliament for a second time in 1797, when the Caldon Canal Act 1797 ( 37 Geo. 3 . c. 36) was passed. To ensure that the water from Rudyard could be used to supply the main line, the Leek branch had to join

2072-626: The Caldon joins the summit level of the Trent and Mersey system, it is still a valuable supply for that canal too. Although the canal was never legally closed, its traffic had declined to such an extent that by the 1960s it was almost unusable. A survey of it was carried out in 1960 by the Inland Waterway Protection Society, which had been formed in 1958 in response to the Bowes Committee report, which listed many canals which it thought should no longer be maintained. In April 1959,

2146-592: The Cauldon Low area, the company sought an act of Parliament to authorise construction of the new works, which it obtained as the Trent and Mersey Canal Act 1776 ( 16 Geo. 3 . c. 32) in May 1776. The act enabled the proprietors to borrow £25,000 to fund the construction, which was completed in December 1778. Initially, there were 16 locks, eight rising from Etruria to the start of the summit at Stockton, and eight falling from

2220-470: The Churnet Valley Railway could be built along its course. The tramway from Froghall to Cauldon Quarries was replaced by a new cable-operated railway in 1849. It included inclined planes at Froghall, Oldridge and Cotton, and was built to a gauge of 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ). Trains consisted of up to nine waggons, each capable of holding 6 tons of limestone, and around 1,000 tons

2294-529: The Dove Valley to link up with the Trent and Mersey Canal , but no details of the precise routes have survived. The canal was not a financial success, and the Trent and Mersey Company made plans to close it. However, the canal company was taken over by the North Staffordshire Railway, and with the exception of the first lock and the basin at Froghall, which remained in use until about 1930, the canal

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2368-634: The Foxley can be found in the Holden Lane Pools nature reserve, as well as alongside the footpath from the reserve to the Elizabethan Ford Green Hall. The position of the former junction is marked, on a sharp bend in the canal, at a pub called The Foxley in Milton. Download coordinates as: [REDACTED] Media related to Caldon Canal at Wikimedia Commons JCB (heavy equipment manufacturer) J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited ( JCB )

2442-607: The JCB 7. In 1975, Anthony Bamford , Bamford's son, was made Chairman of the company. In 1978, the Loadall machine was introduced. The next year, the firm started its operation in India . In 1991, the firm entered a joint venture with Sumitomo of Japan to produce excavators, which ended in 1998. Two years later, a JCB factory was completed in Pooler near Savannah , Georgia , in the US, and in 2012

2516-410: The JCB logo appeared for the first time. It was designed by Derby Media and advertising designer Leslie Smith. In 1957, the firm launched the "hydra-digga", incorporating the excavator and the major loader as a single all-purpose tool useful for the agricultural and construction industries. By 1964, JCB had sold over 3,000 3C backhoe loaders. The next year, the first 360-degree excavator was introduced,

2590-513: The Trent and Mersey Canal, might have to close permanently because of mining subsidence, a bypassing connection between the Leek Branch and the Macclesfield Canal at Bosley was mooted; fortunately Harecastle tunnel remains open to navigation. ) A survey has been commissioned to investigate the possibility of extending the branch back into Leek. In November 2009 a breach occurred just beyond

2664-493: The Uttoxeter Branch. Part of the old canal bed has been lost underneath JCB's head office and factory at Rocester , so the proposed route diverges from the original canal. Another much shorter (approximately 800-yard (730 m)) branch of the Caldon main line, the Foxley, ran from Milton in the north east of Stoke-on-Trent through Sneyd Green to Ford Green Iron Works near Smallthorne , where it ended in two parallel basins of 100 yards (91 m) each. What little remains of

2738-543: The Uttoxeter Canal to boating. The canal begins at Etruria, next to the top lock of the Stoke flight on the Trent & Mersey canal. A statue of James Brindley , the engineer for the Trent & Mersey main line, stands near the junction. Following the course of the infant River Trent , the waterway climbs to a summit level at Stockton Brook, which carries it over the watershed between the Trent and Churnet Valleys. Thereafter

2812-452: The bowling green in Denstone village. Very little can be seen of the canal in Uttoxeter, but there is still evidence it existed, as there is an area called "The Wharf". The Caldon Canal Society was formed in 1961, and worked to reopen the Caldon Canal to Froghall. This was achieved in 1974, and Froghall Wharf remained the terminus for some 25 years. However, they started to think about restoring

2886-565: The canal above Engine Lock. The final section of its feeder was originally the Norton Green branch, a private canal built at the same time as the main line, to service a colliery. Rudyard reservoir holds 122 million cubic feet (3,500 Ml), and its feeder, which joins the Leek branch near the Churnet aqueduct, follows much of the proposed route of the Macclesfield Canal extension to Leek. Since

2960-513: The canal descends through locks at Hazelhurst and then Cheddleton, into an initially broad flood plain. At about a mile above Consall Forge, at Oak Meadow Ford Lock, the canal locks down into the River Churnet for about a mile; the reason for this is that the valley at this point is too narrow to accommodate both canal and river. High river levels can prevent vessels from using this section. At Consall Forge, river and canal part company again, and

3034-573: The canal saw virtually no traffic. Responsibility for the canal passed to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1940, who closed the Leek branch under the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (Canals) Act 1944 ( 8 & 9 Geo. 6 . c. ii). The last heavy commercial traffic was the transfer of coal from Endon to Cheddleton, which ceased in 1952. Johnson Brothers built three new, specialized barges, Milton Maid , built in 1967, Milton Queen in 1973, and Milton Princess in 1978, to convey pottery over

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3108-520: The canal, which is now only wide enough for a single boat, continues its rural journey to Froghall. The final section, built after the main construction was finished, includes the 76-yard (69 m) Froghall Tunnel, which has limited headroom, immediately followed by Froghall Basin. The canal has one branch, the Leek Branch, which runs for 3 miles (4.8 km) and includes the 130-yard (120 m) Leek Tunnel . The Leek Branch, opened in 1800/01, meets

3182-565: The canal. The Uttoxeter Canal was promoted by the Trent and Mersey Canal Company and authorised by an act of Parliament , the Trent and Mersey Canal Act 1797 ( 37 Geo. 3 . c. 81). This was a political move, designed to prevent a rival scheme for a canal to Uttoxeter. The planned Commercial Canal was intended to link the Chester Canal at Nantwich to the Ashby Canal at Moira, passing through Stoke-on-Trent and Uttoxeter, and would have had

3256-700: The decision, with the European Court of First Instance upholding portions of the appeal and reducing the original fine by 25%. JCB appealed to the European Court of Justice but this final appeal was rejected in 2006, with the court slightly increasing the reduced fine by €864,000. In 2017, a Reuters study of JCB group accounts found that between 2001 and 2013, the JCB group paid £577M to JCB Research, an unlimited company that does not have to file public accounts and which has only two shares, both owned by Anthony Bamford. JCB Research has been described as an obscure company, allegedly worth £27,000, but which donated £2M to

3330-498: The east of the JCB site. During the 2010s, the trust concentrated most of their effort on the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Alton to Crumpwood Weir, most of which is owned by the Alton Towers theme park. Bridge 70 was the only original bridge still remaining on the canal, but its ownership could not be established. Staffordshire Moorlands District Council issued a compulsory purchase order against it, and having acquired it, sold it to

3404-410: The end of the summit to Froghall. 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of the canal followed the bed of the river Churnet near Consall. The company could also build railways to the quarries, and the first, which ran from Froghall across Shirley Common towards the quarries opened at the same time as the canal, but was not a success. A second act of Parliament, the Trent and Mersey Canal Act 1783 ( 23 Geo. 3 . c. 33),

3478-525: The first lock on the Uttoxeter Canal, and the basin below it, in 2000. This became known as "Restoration Froghall" in early 2003, and included plans for better facilities at the terminus. The scheme was costed at £800,000, and received a grant from the North-East Staffordshire Rural Regeneration Funds. At the end of the year, a formal partnership between British Waterways and the newly-renamed Caldon and Uttoxeter Canals Trust

3552-414: The first to use iron rails, which was built in 1758. The tramway was rebuilt on a new alignment in 1785, and completely rebuilt in 1800. In 1849, it was replaced by a cable railway. Three locomotives worked the tracks at Froghall Basin, named Toad , Frog and Bobs . The quarries ceased operation in 1920. There was a proposal to construct a branch to Ashbourne, and another in 1839 to extend the canal along

3626-677: The government created the Inland Waterways Redevelopment Advisory Committee, whose responsibility was to assist schemes to redevelop canals that were no longer commercially viable, and the survey formed the basis of a submission to that committee. With further threats of closure in 1961, the Stoke-on-Trent boat club organised a public meeting in Hanley and a cruise along the canal to Froghall in September. This attracted press coverage and local council support. There

3700-506: The locations of Cottons and Taylors locks. Staffordshire County Council and the trust jointly commissioned a feasibility report in 2009, which was produced by the engineering consultancy Halcrow Group , and examined whether there was a possible route to the south of Denstone, terminating at the Uttoxeter gravel pits, which were nearly worked out. After discarding the original route with small diversions, they identified two possible routes which would be relatively easy to construct, both passing to

3774-516: The main line at Hazelhurst Junction, after crossing the main line on Hazelhurst Aqueduct grid reference SJ954536 . Currently the branch ends some way from Leek town centre. The original length of the canal, extending to a basin on the south side of Leek Railway Station, was filled in during the late 1950s/early 1960s to allow for the building of the Barnfields Road Industrial Estate. (When it appeared that Harecastle tunnel, on

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3848-528: The main line to Froghall was completed in 1974, but the Caldon Canal Society continued to press for more to be done. Agreement was reached on how to finance restoration of the Leek branch in mid-1977, and volunteer work parties began the task of clearing the route so that it could be dredged. The main line from Etruria to Froghall and the Leek Branch were two of seven stretches of canal, formally designated as remainder waterways, which were re-classified by

3922-713: The new site beside the A50; the Pinfold Street site was demolished in 2009. During that year, JCB announced plans to make India its largest manufacturing hub. Its factory at Ballabgarh in Haryana was to become the world's largest backhoe loader manufacturing facility. Although JCB shed 2,000 jobs during the Great Recession , in 2010 it rehired up to 200 new workers. In 2013, JCB set up its fourth manufacturing facility in India. In 2014, it

3996-445: The northern portal of Leek Tunnel. This resulted in the end section being closed for eight months while repairs were carried out. The cause of the problem was thought to be an old culvert. While the canal was drained, several other sections of embankment were re-inforced, and the repaired canal was reopened on 5 July 2010. Originally, the canal also had a further 13-mile (21 km) branch, which opened in 1811. Sometimes referred to as

4070-541: The proprietors of the Trent and Mersey Canal Company, as such it is more properly called the Caldon Branch of that canal. It was built to carry limestone from Caldon Low Quarries which was transported to Froghall wharf via three inclined tramways. Other important traffic for the canal was coal from the Cheadle Coalfield and ironstone from the several iron ore mines in the Churnet valley and Kingsley area. The canal

4144-490: The provisions of PPG13, a government guideline that states that new road schemes should not hinder canal restoration schemes, and the new management of Alton Towers, who were in favour of canal restoration, argued that the scheme was unnecessary, as congestion only occurred during the six weeks of the summer school holidays. To the south of Denstone, the original route is blocked by the JCB factory at Rocester, which has been built over

4218-404: The railway to Oakamoor, but since 2018 they have been engaged in extending their line at the opposite end towards Leek. There were also threats at the southern end, when plans for a bypass which would be built along the line of the canal from Denstone to Alton Towers were announced. The scheme would have cost £12 million, and be largely funded by the theme park. The trust campaigned against it, using

4292-691: The same day as his son Anthony was born, he sold the trailer at a nearby market for £45 (plus a part-exchanged farm cart ) and at once made another trailer. At one time he made vehicles in Eckersley's coal yard in Uttoxeter. The first trailer and the welding set have been preserved. In 1948, six people were working for the company, and it made the first hydraulic tipping trailer in Europe. In 1950, it moved to an old cheese factory in Rocester , still employing six. A year later, Bamford began painting his products yellow. In 1953, he developed JCB's first backhoe loader, and

4366-455: The summit level. With the coming of the railways, the Trent and Mersey Company canals were sold to the North Staffordshire Railway , with the formal takeover occurring on 15 January 1845. They were keen to promote the canals and railways as mutual feeders, and so maintained the canals, with the exception of the Uttoxeter branch, which was closed by an act of Parliament obtained in July 1847, so that

4440-403: The top level of the Caldon branch, and so the original route with the three Park Lane locks was closed and a new route built, with a three-lock staircase between the junction and the old line of the canal. This was altered again in 1841 to the present arrangement, where the canal to Froghall passes under an aqueduct on the Leek branch, and three separate locks at Hollinhurst raise the old line up to

4514-400: The trust for £2. The bridge had been restored by September 2016, and some 330 yards (300 m) of the adjacent towpath was repaired and resurfaced. The Waterway Recovery Group have visited the canal several times, and have cleared most of the trees on this section, including a huge sycamore whose roots were damaging Crumpwood Weir. They also discovered that Carringtons Lock, immediately above

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4588-486: The tunnel was improved to 5 feet (1.5 m) with a beam of 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 m). Unfortunately the new moorings just past the tunnel remain relatively little used, as many modern boats are still too high to pass through the tunnel. A height profile gauge is located at the exit of Flintmill Lock 17 to indicate whether a boat has sufficient clearance to pass through the tunnel. The low height restriction would similarly affect proposals to reopen stretches of

4662-547: The turbines to reach it. It is expected that it will be possible to operate the turbines from time to time to demonstrate how the heritage asset worked. As part of the work, one of the turbines was removed, so that it can be displayed, and the project was carried out by the Environment Agency, helped by JCB who loaned heavy equipment, and the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. The fish pass enables fish to negotiate

4736-564: The water was used to keep the main line moving. In 1796, the company wanted to build a reservoir at Rudyard, to improve the situation, and a branch to Leek was included in the bill, as it was the only way to obtain the consent of the Leek authorities and landowners for the reservoir. The bill was defeated in Parliament, after which the Peak Forest Canal Company proposed to build a branch of their canal from Marple to Leek, and on to join

4810-451: The weir, was still largely intact, although buried, and found a wharf originally built by Lord Shrewsbury in the early 1800s to enable construction materials for Alton Towers House to be unloaded. Divers have investigated Crumpwood Weir, and although it is heavily silted at one end, it is in good condition. It was built by John Rennie so that the canal could cross the river on the level, rather than needing an aqueduct. The weir itself, which

4884-465: Was announced, with the stated intention of completing the project by early 2005. It took a little longer than intended, but the lock and basin were formally reopened in July 2005. The Caldon and Uttoxeter Canals Trust then turned their attention to the feasibility of restoring the canal from Froghall to Uttoxeter. The situation was complicated by the fact that the revived Churnet Valley Railway terminated at Froghall, and they were originally going to reopen

4958-452: Was closed by the railway company on 15 January 1849. A large part of it was subsequently filled in, and used for the route of the Churnet Valley railway line (which incidentally, although it is now dismantled, had the first automatic, train-operated level-crossing in the UK, at Spath , just outside Uttoxeter.) A few bridges from the Uttoxeter Canal still exist, with the occasional milepost visible, including two which have been relocated to

5032-421: Was no longer in use, and the Environment Agency announced their intention to construct a fish ladder there in 2019, to enable trout and salmon to migrate up the river more easily. The pumping station contains water turbines, which were used to pump drinking water to the local community, and the Larinier fish pass consists of a resting pool within the pump house, with the fish using the inlet and outlet pipes from

5106-450: Was obtained to authorise a new tramway, and to extend the canal by 530 yards (480 m), which included the Froghall tunnel. The tramway was 3.1 miles (5.0 km) long, and was funded out of revenue, as the act did not authorise the raising of additional capital. Traffic on the Trent and Mersey main line was such that it suffered from water shortage in dry periods, and water levels on the Caldon branch were often too low at such times, as

5180-402: Was reopened, as was the basin below it, and moorings for several boats were created. Much of the work was undertaken with volunteer aid, and funded in part by contributions from the European Regional Development Fund . Because the roof of the Froghall tunnel has always been extremely low, the 2003 restoration included lowering the water level in the pound after dredging, and thus the headroom in

5254-511: Was reported that three out of every four pieces of construction equipment sold in India was a JCB, and that its Indian operations accounted for 17.5% of its total revenue. JCB-based memes have also become prevalent in India. JCB began manufacturing 20-30 tonne excavators in Solnechnogorsky District in Russia in 2017. Due to trade sanctions imposed following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , JCB suspended its operations in Russia in March 2022. In 2020, JCB launched www.jcbexplore.com -

5328-589: Was shown on the BBC television programme Tomorrow's World , and years later as Jeremy Clarkson 's tractor of choice in Top Gear . The firm makes a range of military vehicles, including the JCB HMEE . It licenses a range of rugged feature phones and smartphones designed for construction sites. The design and marketing contract was awarded to Data Select in 2010, which then lost the exclusive rights in 2013. JCB power systems make

5402-507: Was subject to considerable mining subsidence in the Etruria area, which eventually led to the need for an entirely new lock, Planet Lock, with a rise of just 3 feet (0.91 m), to adjust the levels. Water to the canal is supplied by three reservoirs and the River Churnet. Stanley reservoir holds 22 million cubic feet (670 Megalitres (Ml)), and joins the canal just below Endon basin, while Knypersley holds 41 million cubic feet (1,200 Ml) and joins

5476-631: Was then a proposal by the Caldon Canal Committee for the National Trust to take over the waterway, and although this did not occur, the committee became the Caldon Canal Society, and worked with the British Waterways Board towards its eventual restoration . Staffordshire County Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council announced that they would make contributions towards the restoration in 1969. The Inland Waterways Association held

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