Visit

Heritage

Built in 1804.
Still here, still useful.

The Wharf is one of the last surviving canal-junction warehouses in the country. It has carried cotton, coal, grain and horses through its doors over the last 220 years, and the bricks remember every one.

Why this building matters

A working building, not a museum piece.

The Marple canal junction was a node in the great network of industrial-era trade routes. A place where the cotton from Oldknow's mills met the limestone, coal and grain moving across the Pennines. The warehouse was where it all paused, was unloaded, weighed, and sent on its way.

Our approach to restoration is the same approach this building has always taken: keep what works, adapt what doesn't, and always leave it useful for the next generation.

Timeline

220 years, in chapters.

  1. 1794

    Samuel Oldknow arrives in Marple

    Oldknow buys land at the canal junction to build cotton mills and the wharf complex that will feed them.

  2. 1804

    The warehouse is built

    Originally a transit point for cotton, coal and grain moving between the Macclesfield and Peak Forest canals.

  3. 1845

    Repurposed as a grain store

    As the cotton trade shifted, the warehouse adapted. The first of many quiet reinventions.

  4. 1920s

    Stables and yard

    Horses kept for canal towing and local deliveries. The brickwork still carries marks from this era.

  5. 1980s

    Light industrial use

    Used as a factory store. The building falls quietly out of public view.

  6. 2018

    Community Interest Company formed

    Local volunteers come together to save the building from disrepair.

  7. 2024

    Heritage Fund supported

    Major funding secured to restore the building as a community heritage hub.

  8. Today

    The doors are open

    The Wharf welcomes visitors as a heritage centre, wellness hub, café and community space. A working building, again.

The visitor centre

An experience designed to slow you down.

The ground-floor heritage centre is built around three ideas: the people, the trade, and the building itself. Exhibits include original artefacts, archive material from the Oldknow estate, and a conversational kiosk where you can speak directly with two of the people who once worked here.

The same characters are available on the trail app for visitors walking the towpath, so the conversation continues outside the building.

With thanks to

The funders, partners and volunteers who made this possible.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Marple Local Heritage Society

Stockport Council

Canal & River Trust

Friends of The Wharf