The Brake

In 1840 Robert Williamson opened the Tower Hill Colliery in Staffordshire, to the east of Mow Cop. To take coal to the markets available along the Macclesfield Canal he constructed a railway of 4ft 8ins gauge connecting Tower Hill and his nearby Trubshaw colliery to a wharf on the canal at Kent Green. Construction was under way quickly and the major work, a tunnel through the hill at Mow Cop, was being driven by February 1842. The line opened on Boxing Day 1842.

On the west side of the tunnel the line descended via two self-acting inclines to Kent Green. This view is from close to the head of the lower incline along the line of the tramroad towards the upper incline. This section is known as "The Brake" to this day. The presence of the line caused the unusual shape of the end of the terraced houses built alongside the road to the area known as "The Bank".

The line closed with the pit in 1887.