I am Linda and along with my husband Richard and our dog Oreo we enjoy our summers on the UK's canal system

Wednesday 18 April 2018

Wooden Top Bridge Number 31 (Ashby Canal) – Tuesday 17th April


The fridge was beginning to look a bit empty and we could see that there is a Sainsburys in Hinkley which is just over ½ mile from the canal, however by the time we had found somewhere to moor it was just over 1 mile!!  We walked to the store – it wasn’t an onerous walk but we decided that, with the shopping, we would get a bus back.  We could see that there were two if not three buses going our way so we hailed the first one and got on.  I asked the Oriental driver if the bus went over the canal and he hadn’t foggiest what I was talking about!  In the end I just swiped my bus pass.  Richard’s bus pass has expired so he got on and asked “how much for the same journey?”  This threw the Oriental driver completely as he had no idea where I was going!  Eventually, after a lot of tapping on his ticket machine, he asked Richard for £1.60 who was horrified and couldn’t believe it was so expensive!  He has had a bus pass for 8 years now so hasn’t had to pay for bus fares – he reckons it should have been 1s 6d not £1.60! 

We got moving after lunch and did another 4 miles before pulling over.  Richard said that most of the nice places were already taken but where we are is OK but it is still so windy.


I had bought a small piece of lamb for dinner however when I opened the vacuum pack it sprung up to be quite a large piece – enough for two meals!  When I picked it up in Sainsburys I thought to myself that it was a) small for a leg and b) expensive for the size but those thoughts didn’t get transferred to the part of my brain that says “hey something is wrong here”!  I find this happens quite a lot these days!  However it was a lovely piece of meat.


The Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal is a 31 mile long canal which connected the mining district around Moira with the Coventry Canal. It was opened in 1804, and a number of tramways were constructed at its northern end, to service collieries. The canal was taken over by the Midland Railway in 1846, and remained profitable until the 1890s, after which it steadily declined. Around 9 miles passed through the Leicestershire coal field, and was heavily affected by subsidence, with the result that the section from Moira, southwards to Snarestone, was progressively closed in 1944, 1957 and 1966, leaving 22 miles of navigable canal. 
  

7.34 miles
0 locks

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