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The Ashby Canal is an
idea ‘starter canal’ for those wishing to gain their
confidence in the art of boat handling before having to
acquire the knack of working a lock. It is ideal for the
less physically energetic and for those who wish to
enjoy a narrow boat holiday at its most relaxing. The
Ashby Canal exemplifies the Heart of England’s rural,
natural and historical heritage at its very best.
The Ashby Canal, or
‘Moira Cut’, is 22 miles of unspoilt, lock free
tranquillity, which diverges off the Coventry Canal at
Marston Junction in Bedworth, Warwickshire and
terminates at the Leicestershire village of Snarestone.
It is far removed from motorways and duel carriageways
and barely touches any towns or villages. It even
manages to avoid its namesake, the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouche!
The original plan
proposed by William Jessop and Robert Whitworth in 1781,
was for it to meander from the Coventry Canal, opened in
1769, on a substantially level coarse, until the last
four miles, where it would climb 139 feet to a summit at
Ashby Wolds rich in coal and limestone deposits. This
summit level would be supplied by a steam-engine pump
from a nearby reservoir. It would continue for four and
a half miles to a junction on the far side of
Asby-de-la-Zouch. One branch would run to near Breedon-on-the-Hill,
the other to Ticknall, both near Burton upon Trent in
Derbyshire. The Ashby finally opened in 1804, at the
cost of £184,000, running the 30 miles between the
Coventry Canal and a scattering of tramways that served
the coalfields. It failed, however, to arrive at Burton
and missed Ashby by 5 miles! The coalfields were
extensive and produced the highest quality coal and, for
over 150 years, it was carried by water to the London
markets. Potteries also flourished in the area, and many
boatmen’s wives seized the opportunity to buy a
traditional brown glazed Measham teapot, often decorated
with relief adornment and the name of their boat,
strictly for Sunday best. It was sold in 1846 to the
Midland Railway Company for just £110,000, a
considerable loss for the owners. Later it passed hands
again to the London Midland and Scottish Railway
Company.
The new railway owners
did not invest sufficient money into the canal to
maintain it properly, preferring to see cargo being
carried on the railway and so its condition gradually
deteriorated. In 1918 a major breach caused by mining
subsidence caused the last few miles of the canal near
Ashby to be abandoned. The canal was nearly closed
completely: only the strategic importance of the coal
supplies during the First World War allowed it to
survive. Further mining subsidence caused sections to be
closed, from Donisthorpe in 1944, Measham in 1957 and
Snarestone in 1967.
With mining in the area
at an end and subsidence no longer an issue, there is
now a major project underway to restore the Ashby Canal.
Between 1999 and 2005 a section between Donisthorpe and
Moira was been rebuilt and re-filled with water. This
award winning mini canal passes through some of the
newly planted Heart of England National Forest, skirts
the historic Moira Furnace, now a museum, and adds an
added dimension to the Conker’s National Forest Visitor
Centre. It is also the location for the annual Moira
Canal Festival. At the end of 2005 it was announced that
a further section of 2.5 miles, extending the existing
canal proper from Snarestone to Measham, was to begin.
This project is estimated to cost £13,100,000. This is
an increase from about six thousand pounds per mile to
construct the original canal to five and a quarter
million pounds per mile to restore it! (No wonder the
fund raising projects proliferate.) The newly restored
section will feature a Wharf at Moira and an aqueduct
over Measham High Street. It now seems just a matter of
time until complete restoration will be accomplished.
 From our beautiful marina
at Springwood Haven your luxury narrowboat will take a
right under Wood Bridge (right) and along the Coventry Canal. In
no time at all you will find yourself nudging the
outskirts of Nuneaton with its canal side properties,
allotments and football ground – the first of only two
major encounters with civilization! As the scenery
starts to become more rural you will find yourself on
the cusp of the sharp left hand turn of the remote
Marston Junction, which will see you on to the Ashby.
The junction is only one boat’s width, so manners and
judgment are required if traffic is moving in both
directions. Look down and you will spot that Marston was
once a stop lock, a shallow lock used by the canal
owners to stop boats long enough to extract a toll from
them. Once on the Ashby you will be able to appreciate
its beauty. It snakes along lazily as if it knows that
it is going now where in particular, bordered by water
lilies and rushes. Only the odd B road overhead reminds
you that the 21st Century still exists out there.
Two hours cruising will
find you passing under bridge 15, Watling Street Road
bridge, which marks the boundary between Warwickshire
and Leicestershire. Here you will find the first of
several interesting places to eat and drink, The Lime
Kilns. This pub predates the canal. Originally called
The Plough, it was one of the coaching inns for
travelers passing between London and Holyhead. When the
canal arrived, it provided the boatmen with sustenance
and somewhere to stable their horses. With lime being
one of the major cargos on board the boats and a
proliferation of kilns along the canal side, the pub’s
name was changed to reflect its new environment. Today
you will find a friendly, quiet bar downstairs and first
floor restaurant that is ideal for families. On warmer
days one can sit canal side, enjoy other people’s boats
and get harassed by the ducks. Inside, rumor has it, you
may be harassed by Harry the ghost! The food is
plentiful and reasonably priced and the Lime Kilns still
boasts an authentic canal side atmosphere, which may
explain why its popularity demands that boats sometimes
jostle for mooring nearby.
A short distance on finds
you at Hinckley. This is a bustling hosiery town, but
the canal shyly stays on its fringes. Hinckley’s Trinity
Marina is a large canal boat centre where those truly
bitten by the bug can hanker after the boats for sale.
There is a large Brewer’s Fayre Restaurant, with
terraces overlooking the canal and the marina and a
somewhat trendier crowd in the evening. From bridge 16
it is a short walk to the local store with cash point.
Hinckley itself offers an interesting museum
specializing in local history and choice of shops. Once
you have journeyed through Hinckley, you will again find
yourself in Leicestershire’s rural best, punctuated by
church steeples and hill top villages. Of particular
interest is the abandoned railway which runs parallel
with the canal. Like the canal, this line, part of the
Nuneaton and Ashby Railway, was designed to carry coal,
most of which was destined for London. This section, a
loop line between Stoke Golding and Hinckley, served no
purpose in this design and was dismantled, having never
been used, in 1900. Stoke Golding offers limited
shopping but a pretty church and the choice of three
pubs. Dadlington, at its best when approached from
bridge 31, boasts a wonderful 18th centaury inn, The Dog
and Hedgehog, where there are still facilities to tie up
one’s horse. The food is of such renown that you will
probably have to book in order to get a served a meal.
Bridge 33 marks your half
way point and soon after you will find yourself at
Sutton Cheney Wharf. Here you can spend some time
watching the colourful trip boats, having a light meal
in the café, browsing in the shop or enjoying a canal
side picnic. The next part of your journey takes you to
a location that affected the whole history of England.
Ambion Wood skirts the famous Bosworth Battlefield where
the battle that is considered to have ended the Wars of
the Roses was fought in 1485. The War for the Crown of
England was waged between Yorkist King Richard III and
the Lancastrian Henry Tudor. Richard, as every schoolboy
knows, was the last king of England to die in battle
leaving Henry to found the Tudor Dynasty. The
Battlefield today is open to the public. Moor just after
bridge 35 at Shenton, King Richard’s Field and explore
the Battlefield Country Park where the story is told on
information boards and at the Visitor Centre on Ambion
Hill. The nearby Shenton Station is one of the termini
of the Battlefield Railway Line, a preserved section of
the Nuneaton and Ashby Railway. Here, at weekends and
Bank Holidays, you can visit the Railway Pottery and
catch a steam train for the five mile journey to
Shackerstone Station. King Edward VII is known to have
stopped off here upon several occasions to visit his
mistress on the way to and from Gopsall Hall! The home
of the voluntary run Shackerstone Railway Society boasts
a museum, tea room and souvenir shop and also holds
special events throughout the year. You can then buy a
return ticket or enjoy a ramble back along the tow path.
Either way there is plenty of history, natural as well
as manmade, to enjoy. Before the next bridge the canal
becomes ‘top dog’ in the form of an aqueduct. From here
you can access a farm shop and Whitemoors Antiques and
Craft Centre which has a licensed tea room, serving
lunches. A little further along you will discover
Shenton itself, a very pretty hamlet and worth the short
walk from the canal.
 Well under an hour later
you will find yourself at Boswoth Wharf, where you may
choose to take the mile walk east into Market Bosworth,
a beautiful, well preserved town with many historical
buildings and some lovely places to eat, largely
clustered around the old cobbled market place, a
conservation area. The right to hold a market in Market
Bosworth goes back to the seventeenth century when a
Charter was granted. Today the Market operates every
Wednesday with a variety of stalls selling fruit,
vegetables, clothing, fish, fabric, plants and other
items. Market Bosworth provides the last real shopping
opportunity on the Ashby canal, so bare this in mind if
you require provisions. The Country Park is sited to the
east of the town and is comprised of over eighty acres
of parkland. There is an adventure playground, a lake,
an arboretum, a wildlife pond and a network of footpaths
giving access to surrounding villages. The Park is open
all day. Alternatively you may prefer to head west and
swap the canal for another type of water. Bosworth Water
Trust is a 50 acre leisure park of gently sloping
grassland with 20 acres of lakes for windsurfing,
sailing, kayaking and canoeing. Toilets and showers are
located on the site and there is a lakeside snack bar,
equipment hire and crazy golf. Dogs are welcome on a
lead. (image above right, Colne Valley winding at the
canal terminus,
courtesy Andrew Denny -
www.grannybuttons.com)
The last two miles of the
Ashby is very rural and sees the canal keeping its usual
dignified distance from the pretty villages, the first
of which is Congerstone. Here you will find the Horse
and Jockey, an old country pub with a modern twist and
great food. The second is Shackerstone. As well as the
station, you will find another aqueduct here and the
Rising Sun Pub, where food is generally available. The
railway fades back to an apparition on one side of the
canal and Gopsall Woods grace the other. This leafy
tunnel section of canal has been designated a Site of
Special Scientific Interest, mainly because of the
aquatic plant life and varieties of dragonfly attracted
to the area. The site of the 18th centaury Gospall Hall
itself is some distance from the canal. It was perhaps
the grandest Georgian country house in Leicestershire,
set in a 1000-acre park, with two lakes, a walled garden
and garden buildings including a Temple. Visitors have
included King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and the
young Winston Churchill. George Frederick Handel is said
to have closeted himself inside the Temple for 3 weeks
in 1741 to write his masterpiece “The Messiah”. Most of
the buildings were demolished in 1951 and now only part
of the walled garden, the electricity generating
building, an underground reservoir and the ruined garden
temple remain. The remaining standing stonework bears
graffiti from the 1880's and 90's and World War II when
the army requisitioned it.
The final destination of
the Ashby in its current form is Snarestone. This is a
comparatively large village and offers a farm shop as
well as two pubs. Nearest to the canal is the recently
refurbished Globe, which serves well prepared food, has
a children’s play area and a cash machine. Snarestone’s
main claim to fame is its tunnel, the only one on the
Ashby, 250 yards and single file only. Beyond the canal
ends somewhat anti climatically: don’t expect any flags
or streamers at its terminus. Naturally it has a large
winding hole and also houses two ‘sheds’, (one
containing public loos and one occasionally selling
goods to raise money for the restoration) and a live
aboard boat or two. There is road access but the public
is not permitted to use it. All this adds up to a very
peaceful and remote location to spend the night before
you begin your journey back. |
