Description:Looking north along the Trent & Mersey Canal from the footbridge just north of Westport Lake. The building and chimney in the centre is the old blowing engine house at Ravensdale.
Opened in 1777, the Trent & Mersey Canal linked the River Trent near Derby with the River Mersey near Runcorn, a distance of nearly 95 miles. It was taken over by the North Staffordshire Railway in 1846. The canal served to bring in raw materials, especially ball clay, china clay and Cornish stone and to distribute finished pottery.
The route flowed the Fowlea Brook valley, with the railway line just off to the left of the photograph. At this point the canal is just a few miles south of the Harecastle Tunnels.