In Search of the Lost Canal

The Charnwood Forest Canal (Thringstone to Nanpantan)

Stephen Neale Badcock

(NB: It is intended to present a complete photographic and descriptive record of the canal route, Thringstone to Nanpantan. All major surviving sections of the canal will be detailed as and when they are visited)

I shall never forget that halcyon day of late July 1999, when my friend and I quite casually set out in an attempt to trace the route of the old Charnwood Forest Canal. Aided only by a hand-drawn map photocopied from a local history brochure published twenty years earlier, we expected to find, perhaps here and there, a bit of a dip in a field; it was, after all, more than one hundred and ninety years since the canal had held water and, curiously, exactly two hundred years since the feeder canal at Blackbrook had burst its banks and condemned this extraordinary venture to its doom.

We negotiated the nettle-strewn footpath which begins atThringstone Primary School, and duly emerged on Cinder Hill, then walking close to the ancient hedgerows on this rather dangerous sweep of road, until we arrived at Cinder Hill Farm, located just before the turn into Osgathorpe. It would, of course, have been easier to walk down Lily Bank, and turn right at the George and Dragon to arrive at the same place, but I had not been along the school footpath since boyhood and was curious to know if it still existed. Nothing had changed.

At Cinder Hill Farm we again joined the route of a footpath and followed the course of the brook which had once powered the wheel of Thringstone flour mill a little further upstream, ruins of which can still be found not far away from the George and Dragon. As we continued our ramble alongstream, past a silage store, we began to doubt there would be much of a discovery. On crossing another field and mounting a stile, it was then, as we looked to our right that we saw an unmistakable earthwork rising out of a field.

Section 1, Osgathorpe (Cinder Hill Farm to The Snarrows)

Start of canal bed, to the rear of Cinder Hill Farm. Today, there is no trace of the loading wharf at 'Thringstone Bridge' which would have connected the tramways a short distance before this cutting.

Moments later, we were walking along the bed of the old canal - a deep and impressive cutting, perhaps five or six feet in depth and of a fair width - and which led to a large basin close to the sad ruins of the old Junction House; an area which would once have been a pond where the canal branched out, with an arm connecting the lime quarry at Barrow Hill.

At the time of writing, all that remains of the Junction House are its side elevations - everything in between has gone, and it can only be a matter of months rather than years before the house itself is traceable only as an earthwork. Sadly, it is not all that long ago that the house was occupied - certainly I remember it having a roof - and doubtless a good deal of its fabric has been robbed.

Cycle of Decay : The Junction House as it appeared (left) in the spring of 1974, (centre) in 1986, and (right) in July 1999.

From the Junction pond, we followed the old towpath, which is for the most part heavily tree-lined, until the point where this remarkably well preserved initial stretch of canal bed stops abruptly, in a field off Snarrows Lane, Osgathorpe, where it has been infilled for farming purposes.

From here, the canal would have gone on to form a great loop in the fields beyond The Snarrows, actually doubling back on itself in an alignment which took it to Gracedieu Priory ruins, though there is very little left of this section and it becomes necessary to refer to a map to trace the contour line that the route would have adhered to.

Section 2, Gracedieu (Priory Ruins)

Once at Gracedieu, we found perhaps the most unexpected remains of all. Having crossed the A512 road, the canal is again traceable as a deep hollow, passing though the wood toward the old railway embankment (see photograph below). The start of this can be found about one hundred and fifty yards down the road from the Bulls Head pub, opposite a small pumping house, though the best way to find it is to follow the new Sustrans cycle path which actually passes through it just a short distance from the railway embankment.

Above: Section of canal bed which passes through woodland at Gracedieu, close to the priory ruins. This section is now cut through by the Sustrans cycle path, and forms the boundary of a small field adjacent to the A512 which contains the Gracedieu standing stone and modern-day sculpture of 'Rusty Mary' (Photo by Steve Badcock, May 2001)

In order for it to maintain its level, the canal too is carried by an impressive embankment, and this crosses over the Gracedieu brook, where a small circular tunnel aqueduct in original brick can still be found allowing the stream to pass underneath.

Aqueduct tunnel near Gracedieu Priory,1999(MA Redfern)

Above: Located close to Gracedieu Priory, this small aqueduct tunnel allows the Gracedieu brook to pass under an embankment which had been built to maintain the level of the canal. It was not easy to keep a foothold while scrambling down the bank to get this photo, taken by Mark Redfern in 1999.

The canal then passes behind the priory ruins, but was almost entirely built over by theCharnwood Forest Railway, constructed between 1881 and 1883 and closed eighty years later.

Section 3, Low Woods to Blackbrook Farm

From Gracedieu, the canal continues to lie largely under the Charnwood Forest Railway as it re-crosses the A512 in the direction of Belton. The alignment breaks away from that of the railway and can be seen along the footpath between Low Woods Lane and Forest Lane. There exist well preserved sections as it turns southward again to eventually meet the railway. Along this section lies Thompsons Bridge - the only surviving example of fifteen bridges that once crossed it.
My friend and I explored part of the canal bed which still lies perfectly intact, to the rear of Blackbrook Farm, though felt compelled to leave when realising that we were probably trespassing. This sense of being ill placed fell upon as the route became lined with feeding hoppers and wandering pheasants!

Above: Thompsons Bridge, e-mailed by Simon Powell, March 2004

Simon writes: 'When I started to study the structure, this bridge must have been and still is a work of art. The face of the arches have been gauged and the bricks cut so the joints are equal. The arch is not semi circular but a three centred pseudo elliptical arch. The crown of the arch is unreassuringly flat but 200 years or so have proved its durability. Under the bridge the water line can still be seen. Random brick bonding below water level becomes perfect English bond above. I conclude that this bridge was constructed so the farm had access over the canal but its design and craftsmanship give it the look of grandeur and ideas above its station.'

According to Williams, the bridge is approximately 18ft. 6in. wide at the entrance and exit, tapering in the middle to approximately 14ft. 6in. It is thought that when the canal carried water, the height from the water level to the crown was about 8 feet. This compares closely with the Millers Bridge near Loughborough on the Leicester River Line.

Section 4, Shepshed Aqueduct

The route now reaches the edge of the short but deep hollow of the Blackbrook Valley, which is bridged by a high earthen embankment.

To the regular road-user of the A512, this location will be very familiar and easily called to mind as the winding sweep of road which dips at the "Drum and Monkey" garage and goes into an acute right-hand bend, lined with vehicular chevron signs, before ascending again to meet the junction of Tickow Lane, with the Fenny Windmill as an impressive landmark at the top.

The embankment can be discerned through the trees lining this stretch of road (though it is not recommended that the driver should avert his attention at this point!). There is however a small parking bay just before Tickow Lane or the option of finding a sensible parking spot on one of the minor roads, in order to access the public footpath which runs through the site, which reveals the most interesting and impressive surviving piece of engineering along the route of the canal - a large horseshoe aqueduct accommodation tunnel passes under the embankment, and also a small circular brick aqueduct tunnel (similar to the one at Gracedieu) which allows the Blackbrook stream to run through and which passes into a tranquil pond on the other side.

Above: Aqueduct Tunnel, south of Shepshed. Photo e-mailed by Simon Powell, Feb 2004 (Many thanks!)
Enlarged and strengthened by the Charnwood Forest Railway Company a century later, this tunnel remains the most impressive piece of engineering along the route of the canal. The tunnel is commonly mistaken to have contained the canal, and indeed the interior ledges look suspiciously like towpaths - such a mistake appears in "Charnwood Forest in Old Photographs" (1991, by Ian Keil and others). In fact, the canal passed over the top, the tunnel being designed to allow access for cattle. The raised pathways on either side of the tunnel were probably for drovers, since the floor of the access sometimes carried overflow waters from the Blackbrook, which is also culverted under the embankment just a short distance away. On top of the embankment here can be seen a double section of canal bed. This is where water was once fed in from the feeder reservoir at Blackbrook, carried over the modern-day A512 by a huge earthen aqueduct that was swept away during the disaster of 1799.

From Shepshed, the branch runs until it meets the M1, after which it can be followed east through the Longcliffe Golf Course, and is crossed about 400 yards from the Golf Club building by Snells Nook Lane - a road running north from Nanpantan to the A512.

Above: The only surviving part of canal bed which still holds water, seen here looking toward Snells Nook Lane in March 2004

(Photo by Simon Powell, e-mailed 28.05.2004 ... many thanks)

Passing by the Golf Club and crossing Snells Nook Lane, the branch runs besides gardens - some of which have made use of the canal bed. This is where the canal - as a waterway ended, and the final stretch of railroad began to connect the branch with Loughborough
Click here to see the 1791 survey map for the Charnwood Forest Canal

The Charnwood Forest Canal : Historical Background

The Charnwood Forest Canal was an extraordinary, short-lived affair put together during the closing years of the eighteenth century( a time when enthusiasm for canal building in England had reached the peak now referred to as Canal Mania). The general concept was simple enough - to afford a means of transporting coal from the mines near Thringstone to Loughborough, thus linking the coalfield to the main river navigation. But the scheme devised to achieve this was subject to a number of flaws and the venture seems to have been doomed from the off.

From medieval times coal had been mined at Coleorton (as indeed the name suggests) and an abundance of pits developed in this area from Elizabethan times. The coal dug here would have been loaded into small carts or the panniers of pack horses and transported for sale in Leicester, Loughborough and other neighbouring townships - a hard but accepted way of life, tolerated by generations in the face of no alternative. Tolerated, that is, until 1779.

In 1766 the 'Soar Navigation', proposed by a group of Derbyshire coal owners and Loughborough businessmen, was passed by Act of Parliament, a scheme devised to make the Soar navigable from the Trent to Loughborough Rushes and which reached completion in 1778.

The commercial operation of the canal was so successful that in the following year coal owners from the Erewash Valley again combined efforts with Loughborough merchants and opened the Erewash Canal, making a direct waterborne route from the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire coalfields to a major distribution point in Leicestershire, at Loughborough. Coal suddenly began to sell in Loughborough at 70% its former price, and the barge-builders began to construct vessels of up to seventy feet long, capable of carrying 30 tons of cargo, navigated by a crew of three and a horse.

In 1779, when it was proposed to extend the Navigation to Leicester and the canal's engineer, William Jessop, was commissioned to carry out a survey, opposition began to gather from the Loughborough merchants who wished to preserve their monopoly position, and from coal owners in West Leicestershire who feared financial disaster.

In 1785, when road cartage charges were raised, interest began to intensify, the campaign being instigated principally by a Leicester Banker, Joseph Boultbee, who was tenant of collieries at Thringstone.

The envisaged scheme was in two parts; the first part consisted of a canal from 'Thrinkston Bridge' to Loughborough, and the second stage involved the canalisation of the River Soar through to Leicester by deepening and making cuts.

The opposition was very powerful and included Lord Rawdon, Earl Ferrers, Earl Huntingdon, Earl Stamford, who had coal interests in West Leicestershire, and Sir John Danvers of Swithland. A vigorous propaganda war ensued and in 1786, the act for the navigation failed to get through Parliament.

Eventually, Lord Rawdon was persuaded on the navigation's merits and in turn managed to win over other members of the opposition in support of a new bill for the setting up of the Leicester Navigation Company

In 1791, Christopher Staveley was brought in to survey the area and came up with a seven and a half mile long contour canal between Thringstone and Nanpantan, near Loughborough. A number of horsedrawn tramroads were built, connecting the coal pits to Thringstone bridge, while at the Nanpantan terminus, a further two and a half miles of tramroad descended the 170 feet to Loughborough wharf to avoid the necessity for locks as it was thought there was insufficient water to operate them.

The canal and its railroads were completed on 24th October 1794, though it was soon found that the canal needed more water and a feeder reservoir at Blackbrook, completed in 1796, had to be built to supply it. Trade along the canal remained patchy however, partly due to the cost of unloading and reloading the coal at the Loughborough end.

Undoubtedly, it would have been the sense of urgency surrounding the need for a feeder reservoir (not to mention a desire to minimise costs) that forced the engineers to fit the reservoir with an earthworks dam, made up of any materials that could be found on site. The dam was however very substantial and it worked....until the winter of 1799.

That winter was particularly bad, but there was an unexpected thaw in February which brought the dam perilously close to bursting point. Workmen knew of the critical situation and worked for days patching over little cracks. Alas, their labour was in vain as on the morning of February 20th 1799, men standing on top of the bank ran for their lives, reaching cover just in time. It took just eleven minutes for the reservoir to empty, with catastrophic results to thousands of acres of farmland with hundreds of sheep drowned, and much of Shepshed and Loughborough inundated with water.

Construction of Blackbrook Reservoir, 1906. Note the temporary siding from the Charnwood Forest Railway that was used while the dam was being constructed, to the left of the photograph.

(Photograph supplied by Ron Goacher)

One woman reported hearing a noise like a clap of thunder as the dam burst and had just enough time to snatch her baby daughter and run before her house was demolished by the torrent of water. Another victim was a Shepshed farmer named Chester who managed to evacuate his wife and children, but who was unable to save any of his buildings, livestock or land. It was Farmer Chester who put in the biggest compensation claim of £11,000 after the disaster.

Canal engineer William Jessop later concluded the breach would never have happened had the dam wall been just one foot higher. The dam was repaired and the canal was operational again by 1801. The great engineer Telford was even brought in to see if the Nanpantan to Loughborough tramline could be replaced by a canal, but by this time the coal owners had had enough. With no profits realised over the past few years, they shut down their pits, thereby affording the Derbyshire coal owners with complete monopoly until the coming of the Leicester and Swannington Railway some thirty years later.

In 1804 the reservoir was emptied and the dam dismantled and in 1808, the company tried, with legal advice, to abandon the canal, since retaining it meant having to pay for the land it occupied in Charnwood Forest, which was on the point of being enclosed. They were unsuccessful, and on enclosure were obliged to pay out an extra £1,900 for forest land. The rails of the connecting tramroads had been taken up by 1819, and were sold between 1825 and 1836.

By 1840, the Charnwood Forest historian Thomas Potter spoke of the canal as being "an unsightly ditch". At that time, unsightly it may have been, though today it has become, in the words of Mr B C J Williams (the canal's foremost historical authority), "a mellow more rounded nature filled trail, giving unexpected harbourage to plant and moving wildlife amid the well trained fields".

But more than that, it is the vestigial nature of the canal's remains that has succeeded in spell-binding so many local people - following the trail requires one to draw heavily upon the power of imagination. The Charnwood Forest Canal is a truly fascinating experience and I dearly hope that some real effort is made to preserve what is left, for the benefit of those generations to come

Special acknowledgement is due to Mr Brian C J Williams of Loughborough, whose research has been drawn heavily upon in presenting this account.

'The Forest Line - An exploration of the lost Charnwood Forest Canal', B C J Williams, Loughborough, 1975.

'An Exploration of the Leicester Navigation : Celebrating 1794 -1994', B C J Williams, Leicester Navigation 200 Group, 1994.

Thanks also to Richard Boultbee, for permission to include the above picture of Joseph Boultbee, and to Keith Timson for lending the 1986 Junction House photograph.

Also to Simon Powell for photographs of Thompsons Bridge, Snells Nook pond and the Shepshed Aqueduct, and Paul Springthorpe for his observations.

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