Beat Bank Branch Canal

The Beat Bank Branch Canal was to leave the Stockport Branch Canal in South Reddish and it was to be lock free but with a short tunnel. It was to follow the contour above the right bank of the River Tame, firstly in a northerly direction and then easterly as it followed the meandering course of the river upstream. It was to terminate at or near to the coalmining hamlet of Beat Bank in Denton where it could also secure supplies of coal from nearby mines at Haughton Green.

Once the Ashton Canal Company had secured an adequate coal-carrying business on the Hollinwood Branch Canal and the Fairbottom Branch Canal it was decided to suspend all work on the unfinished Beat Bank Branch Canal. An Act of Parliament obtained in 1798 allowed the Canal Company to raise further money and abandon this unfinished canal. Some of the money raised was used to pay compensation to land and property owners along the line of the canal for loss or damage caused by the activities of the Canal Company. Only a very short length of this canal was put in water at Reddish and this was known as the Beat Bank or Reddish Private Branch.

Sections of this canal still remain along Reddish Vale Allotments, to the right of Ross Lave Lane and past the M60 viaduct. The engineers who built the M60 viaduct used the same contours as those who built the beat bank branch canal and subsequently severed it.