Aynam Mills, Kendal
We've not long been back from a holiday in the Lake District, in a cottage near Kendal. We had a good, if slightly damp, time, and enjoyed several walks. One attraction (for me) was the finding of traces of the Lancaster Canal, which terminated in Kendal. I discovered roads called Canal Head North, and Canal Head South (pretty good clues); and a former "ticket office".
The plaque claims it's the Kendal-Lancaster Canal. Isn't that like someone in Liverpool calling the northerly route over the Pennines the Liverpool-Leeds Canal?
The plaques in Kendal are generally very informative, though.
It's good to see businesses acknowledging their surroundings: here's the Canal Head tyres, exhausts and brakes place...
... and here's the Canal Head Household Waste Recycling Centre.
Ah, but now we're getting somewhere. You see that footpath on the right? That's the line of the canal! I found it at last.
And, if confirmation were needed, a little further south was the first (last?) bridge. A "change bridge", no less, where the towpath changes sides.
Near the town centre the footpath (and cycle path) ran down the middle of the filled in canal, but further south it tended to the line of the original towpath, with the canal visible as a depression in the ground. In places it was hemmed in...
... but elsewhere the bridges popped up apparently in the middle of nowhere.
About five miles out of Kendal, the other side of a bridge (and gate), the canal is suddenly in water.
One day I should like to come here by boat.
4 comments:
Thanks for posting these photos. I have friends who live in a house that backs on to the old canal just through the turnover bridge in your shot. I keep telling them that one day I'll come to see them by boat. I hope I will.
Jim
Fascinating post Halfie. What fun you must have had tracing its route. The picture of the bridge in the field is very telling isn't it? I like the Change bridge too. I've really enjoyed this post, and was just saying to my Koos that you and your wife seem to do what we do in our free time. Lots of canal walking and looking for old stretches of altered or filled in canals. We don't get to go cruising as much as you do though ;-(
Just a thought, or rather a question, if I decided to bring my barge over to the UK, do you know which canal networks I'd manage to do given its width of 3,2 metres - I think that's about 10 and a half foot - and length of 19.5 metres. Would I be very restricted or could I travel north from the south at all?
Thanks for your comments, Jim and VallyP.
VallyP, there are plenty of waterways which could accommodate your boat. For details of dimensions go to http://www.waterscape.com/things-to-do/boating and click on "waterway dimensions" in the left column (this lists only British Waterways waters, though; many rivers are in the control of the Environment Agency). Suitable waterways could be River Thames; Kennet and Avon Canal; River Avon; River Severn; Grand Union Canal to Birmingham (but not including Birmingham). You wouldn't fit some broad canals, such as the Leeds and Liverpool Canal (locks 60 feet long), owing to the length of your boat (64 feet).
I don't think there's a broad inland navigation linking north and south: you'd have to do that by sea.
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