Portland Basin Museum

This heritage centre is in a good spot in the former Ashton Canal Warehouse, on the Ashton Canal, opposite the Dukinfield Junction with the Peak Forest Canal and Huddersfield Narrow Canal and close to Dukinfield Aqueduct over the River Tame. On the upper, street level there's a recreated 1920s street and you can look around a typical terraced house, pub and grocers from the period. The lower wharf level tells the industrial history of Tameside - hat making, textiles and coal. The museum has an attractive caf - with views over the boats in the basin. Short boat trips are available canalside outside the museum. Open daily, free admission (More information: 0161 343 2878). The Ashton Canal was built at the very end of the 18thC to carry coal to Manchester - and it continued to do so in significant volumes even as late as the 1930s. The canal narrowly escaped culverting in the 1970s, and has since been restored and forms a vital link in the popular Cheshire Ring.

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