SOME of the country's most historical waterways will be reopened in Rochdale today for the first time in 50 years.

The Environment and Oldham West & Royton MP Michael Meacher will open more than 15 miles of the Rochdale Canal, which has been restored over 18 months.

The £25m project included rebuilding some of the canal's channel underneath the A627 motorway.

The Rochdale canal first linked Manchester and Leeds in 1804 but fell into disrepair with the decline in freight traffic in the 1950s.