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The River Dane is a tributary of the River Weaver that originates in the Peak District area of England. The name of the river (earlier Daven) is probably from the Old Welsh dafn, meaning a "drop or trickle", implying a slow-moving river.
The river rises close to the source of the River Goyt just to the south west of Buxton, at Dane Head on Axe Edge Moor. Flowing southwest, it forms county borders for around before flowing west through Congleton and past Holmes Chapel. The point on the river where the three counties meet, at Panniers' Pool Bridge, is called Three Shire Heads (sometimes Three Shires Head). Walks in the UK Peak District - Axe Edge Moor, Buxton's coal mining district Passing just north of Middlewich, it merges first with the River Croco near the site of the old Roman fort in Harbutt's Field, and then with the River Wheelock near the aqueduct carrying the Trent and Mersey Canal, and runs the remaining north to Northwich where it flows into the River Weaver.
The River Dane is the longest, cleanest and thought to be the fastest flowing river through Cheshire. The route of the Dane is followed as closely as possible by the Dane Valley Way, a walking route from Buxton to Northwich.
Although the main river is part of the River Mersey catchment and flows into the Irish Sea, a portion of the water can be diverted via canal feeders into Rudyard Lake and subsequently the Caldon Canal. This water discharges eventually into the River Trent and ultimately into the North Sea, having crossed the English watershed.
A small stone bridge over the river near Holmes Chapel, Hermitage Bridge, was built in 1772 by a local ironmaster. Some years the river floods widely across the meadows here. Nearby a tall red brick railway viaduct, built in 1841, spans the broad Dane Valley between Holmes Chapel and Twemlow. It has 23 arches and is Grade II listed. It crosses the River Dane at Saltersford, where Cheshire salt traders once drove their horse-drawn carts through a ford along the toll road.
Reading downstream, the following crossings are all designated listed buildings or scheduled monuments: Dane Bridge, Hug Bridge, Lymford Bridge (early 19th century), Dane Aqueduct over the Macclesfield Canal (1830), Congleton Railway Viaduct (West Coast Main Line, 1849), Colley Mill Bridge, Havannah Bridge (early to mid-19th century, originally leading to a cigar factory), Hermitage Bridge (1772) and Shipbrook Bridge.
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