Ashby de-la Zouch Canal ( Ashby Canal)
This is a 22 mile canal connecting the Leicester village of Snarestone to the Coventry Canal
History
The principal purpose of the Ashby de-la -Zouch canal was transportation of coal and lime from the local mines and quarries .
In 1794 William Jessop and Robert Whitworth proposed the construction on a canal from Ashby-de –la –Zouch to join the Coventry Canal near Nuneaton. The course of which was largely level until the last 4 miles when it rose through 139 feet to the summit of Ashby wolds. Here water was supplied by steam powered pumping engine from a local reservoir. Beyond this the canal continued another four and a half miles to a junction on the other side of Ashby
de-la Zouch with one branch running to Coeleorton and the other to Ticknall.
The act authorising the scheme was passed the same year (1794), though William Jessop withdrew from the project leaving Robert Whitworth to continue assisted by his son.
By 1797 with construction underway the project hit financial crisis both because of increasing costs and the failure of a number financers to actually come up with the money. Worked stopped except in the lower section and an alternative of Railway lines was considered. After some consideration the lines were finally built from Willersley Basin to a junction at Old Parks which eliminated a long loop in the canal system though the railway too was dogged with financial problems.
The canal opened in 1804, taking some time to establish itself as a success, with the first dividend being paid in 1828, then in 1846 it was sold at a loss to the Midland railway company for £110,000. Predictably the railway company’s interests were more in railways and with lack of investment the canal fell into neglect with 1918 seeing major problems when a breach caused by mining subsidence caused the section nearest to Ashby to be abandoned and the canal as a whole was only saved due to its strategic importance in providing coal for the first world war. The London Midland and Scottish Railways who now owned the canal closed a further section in 1944 with further closures in 1966 again due to mine subsidence.
Help however was at hand and between 1999 and 2005 a section of the canal passing the Moira Furnace was restored and refilled and a new 2.5 mile section proposed from Snaretone to Mesham, the land having been bought and restoration of the canal in progress.