Fish die after water drains out of Rochdale Canal at Boarshaw

Several fish have died after water drained out of the Rochdale Canal near Boarshaw, the Canal and River Trust have confirmed.

Shortly after 9am on Saturday 24 June, the Trust received an emergency call that water had been drained from the Canal at Lock 60 near Boarshaw at Middleton. It is unknown if the paddle left open on a lock gate was carelessness or deliberate vandalism.

A spokesperson for the Canal and River Trust said: “Our emergency response staff immediately attended and discovered a paddle (flap) on one of the lock gates had been left open which had caused the canal to drain. This had sadly left some of the fish in a distressed condition.

“The canal was returned to its normal levels within a few hours but sadly a few fish perished.”

The Rochdale Canal opened in 1804 and crosses the rugged heights of the Pennines from Manchester to Sowerby Bridge.

Restoration work on the Rochdale Canal began in the 1970s, and the following decade saw much of the canal reopened on the Yorkshire side from Littleborough eastwards. This was reconnected to the waterway network in 1996 by the glorious new lock at Tuel Lane near Sowerby Bridge, which combines two earlier locks so that the canal may tunnel under a road built on its original level. At almost 20 feet (6m) deep, it vies with Bath Deep Lock for the title of the deepest lock in Britain.

Restoration of the Rochdale Canal entailed the total refurbishment of 24 locks, the cutting of a new section of channel, massive dredging of the original line and the construction of 12 new road bridges. It was reopened throughout in 2002 and now, together with the reopened Huddersfield Narrow Canal, forms part of the South Pennine Cruising Ring.