History of the Ashby Canal

An example of a waterway named after a town it never reached, the Ashby (-de-la-Zouch) Canal dates from an Act of 1794. Originally intended as a broad-gauge connection between the Coventry Canal and the River Trent - which it also failed to reach, - it was constructed lock-free on a contour of 300 feet and served the coalfields around Moira and Measham.

The principal cargoes were coal and limestone to feed the furnace at Moira and the lime works at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Such was the quality of the coal, prized more highly for its burning qualities than for its use in making iron, that it was still being routinely transported on the line until the 1960s. All this mining activity also led to serious subsidence throughout the 20th Century, resulting in the closure of the canal's northern reaches. Since the 1990s, restoration work has seen stretches of canal reopen beyond Snarestone - where the width of the tunnel illustrates the original ambition to build a broad-gauge canal.

Nearby Measham gave its name to a particular style of pottery bearing a homely motto. Usually brown, it was popular with working boaters.

This unspoilt canal is also a gateway into medieval times. The ridge and furrow patterns created by medieval farmers can still be seen and the canal line touches the western edge of Bosworth Field, where Richard III met his match at the hands of Henry Tudor in 1485. The hawthorn bushes at Stoke Golding are said to be where Richard's crown was discovered following the battle.