Monument record 15820 - Aerial Ropeway on Congleton Edge

<1> Unknown, Various, Mow Cop Interactive, Astbury Lime Works (Web Site). SCH7739.

A steam powered aerial ropeway, which originally transported coal from a wharf at Black Cob to Astbury Sidings. It was later re-routed to transport ganister from a quarry off Mow Lane. A combustion engine replaced the steam engine.

<2> Munro, M, c.2004-2014, Aerial Ropeways, UK Gazetteer: Astbury Silica Mine (Web Site). SCH9390.

The ropeway is depicted as a dotted line, and marked as 'Aerial Ropeway (Disused)', on the Ordnance Survey, Six-Inch map of 1954 (see 10). It ran from the quarry to a railway siding on the North Staffordshire Railway at Astbury Sidings via an angle station at NGR SJ 864 592. D Kitching reported in 2010 that the ropeway was apparently originally installed to serve a colliery further up the hill, and sometime after its closure, the ropeway was redirected to the Ganister works.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1948-1977, National Grid Imperial First Editions (Epoch i5) 6 inch to 1 mile, SJ85NE 1954 (Maps and Plans). SCH9391.

The ropeway is clearly depicted an is labelled 'Aerial Ropeway (Disused)'. Two small buildings are located at either end. Although sources indicate that the later combustion engine which powered the ropeway was located at the gannister quarry (see CHER 15819), there is no evidence to indicate whether the earlier steam engine was located at the coal wharf at Black Cob, or at Astbury Sidings.

<4> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R, 20/04/2023 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The base to one of the pylons associated with the earlier course of the ropeway survives adjacent to shaft no.3 of the mine at Astbury Limeworks. Little evidence is available to infer the course of the earlier ropeway.