and Stockport to join them in the venture. Unlike earlier canals, the spectre of the arrival of the railways was already in sight, and at least one present at the first meeting suggested that a railway might be built. After some debate, it was decided to open subscriptions for a canal, but to consider the possibility of a railway, and some £100,000 was pledged. The engineer Thomas Telford was employed to survey the route, and proposed a canal from Marple on the Peak Forest Canal, which would be level to beyond Macclesfield, and would then descend by a series of locks to the level of the Trent and Mersey Canal summit. It would pass close to Congleton, and would join the Trent and Mersey near Harecastle Tunnel. He stated that an adequate water supply could easily be obtained, and discounted a branch to Stockport, which would have involved a descent of , as the town was already served by the Ashton Canal and the Peak Forest Canal. He considered five possible sites for the location of reservoirs to supply the canal. By the time the canal gained its Act of Parliament on 11 April 1826, the estimated cost of construction, to be funded by shareholders, was put at £295,000. The authorised share capital was £300,000, and the company had powers to borrow a further £100,000. Construction Having conducted the survey and steered the bill through Parliament, Telford does not appear to have been involved in the construction of the canal. Tenders received for the work varied wildly in price, and he chose those that he thought best, as well as contributing £1000, but after that, the civil engineering was managed by William Crosley, a job which he carried out to a high standard. He had previously been working on the northern end of the Lancaster Canal, but resigned from that post to work on the Macclesfield Canal. Construction of the canal began at Bollington on 4 December 1826, with a ceremonial cutting of the first sod. The northern section from Bosley Locks to Marple was awarded as five separate contracts, and work progressed steadily. The Trent and Mersey Canal had managed to get a clause inserted into the enabling Act that required them to build the final mile (1.6 km) of the canal where it joined theirs, and to charge tolls to those using it. By the time the committee