Chat Moss

Chat Moss, a bog in Lancashire, the largest in England, 7 miles W. of Manchester, and 10 sq. m. in extent. It is celebrated as having in 1793-1800 been the scene of the first great and successful efforts for the reclaiming of bogs, largely through the instrumentality of Roscoe the historian, and in 1829 of one of George Stephenson's great engineering triumphs in the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It is very slightly elevated above the sea, and from 20 to 30 feet in depth. Stephenson laid branches of trees and hedge-cuttings, and in the softest places rude hurdles interwoven with heather, on the natural surface of the ground, containing intertwined roots of heather and long grass; a thin layer of gravel was then spread above all, and on it the sleepers, chairs, and rails were laid in the usual manner. Drains were at the same time cut on both sides of the line, and in the central part of the moss a conduit was formed beneath the line of railway of old tar-barrels placed end to end. Notwithstanding difficulties which every one but himself deemed insuperable, Stephenson constructed the portion of the line through Chat Moss at a smaller expense than any other part of the railway.