The Uttoxeter Canal may conveniently be split into four sections with distinct characteristics. These are summarised here with comments from the Restoration Study in the linked page describing the route and main restoration issues in each section.

The Trust took delivery of the “Uttoxeter Canal Restoration Outline Feasibility Study” in 2009. The study had been commissioned by Staffordshire County Council and the Trust to: “determine whether the restoration of the Uttoxeter Canal between the Caldon Canal at Froghall to the north and Uttoxeter Gravel Pits to the south is a feasible project.”

As the full document is over 70 pages it has been split into sections for ease of reading. Please follow the links below to download and read each section. All files are in PDF format.

In 1797, the Trent & Mersey Canal Company placed a bill before Parliament to extend the Caldon Canal from Froghall to Uttoxeter. This was to thwart the rival Commercial Canal scheme, whose route would also have taken in Uttoxeter, and which would have had serious repercussions on the finances of the Trent & Mersey Co. The Commercial Canal proposals were rejected by Parliament in favour of the Trent & Mersey's proposed extension of the Caldon Canal.

The Uttoxeter Canal was built in 1811 and ran for 13 miles from a junction with the Caldon Canal at Froghall down the Churnet Valley via Oakamoor, Alton, Denstone and Rocester to a terminus in Uttoxeter.

 Unfortunately use of the new waterway was short lived and by 1850 it had closed, with some line of the canal being reused by the North Staffordshire Railway. The railway in turn later closed and much of the route reverted to farm land or was reinvented as public footpaths.