The Ashby de la Zouch Canal

The Ashby Canal was originally intended to be a board-gauge canal route connecting the River Trent, at Burton to the Coventry Canal near Bedworth. These plans were however repeatedly shelved until in 1792 the Ashby Canal Company was formed.

The Company and the associated Parliamentary Bill were promoted mainly by the owners of Leicestershire limeworks and the new coalfields near Ashby de la Zouch who were interested in developing a transport outlet southward form their various works.

The engineering problems along most of the proposed route for the canal were reasonably simply as construction would be level and follow the 300 feet contour for 30 miles from Marston Junction on the Coventry Canal near Bedworth to Moira. It was north of Moira where the engineering problems would be more challenging and would require the construction of locks, reservoirs, pumping stations and in all probability a tunnel.

The canal company however avoided many of these problems by developing an extensive network of tramroads connecting the coalmines and limeworks to the canal.

The canal company employed a succession of engineers during the construction work, including Jessop, Outram, Whitworth father and son, and Thomas Newbold.

Before the canal was completed it was found that the new coalmines near Ashby Wolds were less productive than had been anticipated and this together the failure to link up with the River Trent meant that the canal company did not make a profit for the first 20 years of its existence.

It was the opening of a new coal mine at Moira in 1804 which changed the fortunes of the Ashby Canal. The new mine produced excellent quality coal that was very much in demand in London and southern England. The canal flourished and continued to routinely transport coal with last load being transported in 1970.

In 1845 the Midland Railway purchased the Ashby Canal a move that could have badly affected the Coventry and Oxford Canal companies had coal from the Moira coalfield switched to being carried by the railway company. It was due to the efforts of the two canal companies that this did not happen and makes it hard to see what economic benefit the Midland Railway gained from its acquisition.

It is somewhat ironic that subsidence from the coal mines in the Measham area in the 2Oth century caused great damage to the canal and led to a series of closures at the northern end of the canal. These closures eventually meant that 8 miles of the canal were abandoned, and its length was reduced to 22 miles (35km). The northern terminus near Snarestone is south of the coalfield that it once served.

From the 1990’s, restoration work has seen stretches of the canal reopen beyond Snarestone and today the canal is popular with leisure craft being ideal for first time boaters as there are no locks.

Source: Collins Nicholson Waterways Guide 3 - Birmingham & the Heart of England (ISBN:978-0-00-825799-6)