The Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal is a long canal in England which connected the mining district around Moira, just outside the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, with the Coventry Canal at Bedworth in Warwickshire. It was opened in 1804, and a number of tramways were constructed at its northern end, to service collieries. The canal was taken over by the Midland Railway in 1846, but remained profitable until the 1890s, after which it steadily declined. Around passed through the Leicestershire coal field, and was heavily affected by subsidence, with the result that this section from Moira, southwards to Snarestone, was progressively closed in 1944, 1957 and 1966, leaving of navigable canal.
The abandoned section is the subject of a restoration project and was the first canal where a new section had been authorised under the Transport and Works Act 1992. The Transport and Works Order was obtained by Leicestershire County Council, as some of the original route had been infilled and built over, and restoration therefore involved construction on a new route through the centre of Measham. It is hoped that all but the final section of the canal can be re-opened. An isolated section near Moira Furnace and the National Forest visitor centre was opened between 1999 and 2005, and is the location for an annual trailboat festival.
Route
The canal starts at a junction with the Coventry Canal just outside Bedworth and travels north-east for about 7 miles (11 km) through the town of Hinckley. It then continues to run north through largely rural and remote countryside for another 15 miles (24 km) until reaching its terminus at Snarestone. Near Sutton Cheney Wharf, it passes the foot of Ambion Hill, the site of the Battle of Bosworth Field. At Shackerstone, it passes the station that is the headquarters of the Battlefield Line Railway.
History
Origins
In the last half of the eighteenth century there had been an increasing need for transport to exploit the coal reserves at Ashby Wolds and lime from the quarries north of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The first proposal was for a canal running from Burton-on-Trent on the upper River Trent to Marston on the Coventry Canal. A second suggestion was for a canal from Ashby Wolds to the Coventry Canal at Griff. Both proposals were made in December 1781. The first was opposed by the Coventry company, though the second was not. Robert Whitworth had estimated the cost of the project at £46,396, but the scheme was dropped a year later. William Jessop proposed a canal and tramway between Breedon and the Trent, with a connecting link to the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1787, which also came to nothing. A proposal in 1790 was well received at the time, but opposition afterwards prevented a bill being submitted to Parliament. Another proposal for a canal northwards to the Trent at Burton was actively discussed between 1791 and 1793. There was wide support for a canal to Griff in 1792, but the muted support of Penn Assheton Curzon, a local landowner and Member of Parliament, led to it being dropped.
In October 1792, Robert Whitworth revised his plan from 1781. The proposal featured a level canal from Griff, near Nuneaton, to Ashby Wolds, which would cost £63,402. From there it would climb to a summit which would be supplied with water by a steam pumping engine. After a further , the summit level would descend through to level branches, which would serve collieries at Ticknall, Coleorton, Cloud Hill, near Breedon-on-the-Hill, and Staunton Harold. The cost of this section would be £82,143. The plans were checked by Jessop, and formed the basis for a bill to authorise a company with powers to raise £150,000 of capital. Hard negotiation with Curzon and the Coventry Canal was required, during which the junction with the Coventry Canal was moved from Griff to Marston, but the bill finally became an Act of Parliament in May 1794. Whitworth and his son, also called Robert, were appointed as engineers in July, and construction began. (Robert Whitworth was later remembered with the naming in 2002 of Whitworth Avenue on the new George Wimpey development in Hinckley, which overlooks the Ashby Canal).