Tuesday 18^th December 2018

The day dawned wet and windy. We caught the 8:40 bus into Measham and had our breakfast in the same café as yesterday. Brenda then went to have her hair done, while Harvey and myself went off exploring and soaking up some local history. I love it.

The Ashby Canal originally went to Moira, some 8 miles on from Snarestone, along a convoluted route that linked up the local coalmines at Measham, Oakthorpe, Donisthorpe and Moira. These eight miles of canal were abandoned in the 1940’s because of mining subsidence. There are plans to restore the missing link that could see completion in 5 years. There are about 2 miles around Moira already in water.

We passed out of Measham along the route of the canal but the path quickly became narrow, where back gardens had been extended, and overgrown. Eventually leaving the housing behind, the canal bed crosses a field before coming almost alongside the abandoned former Ashby to Nuneaton railway line facing the main A42 link road, the remaining obstacle to restoration.

                                                                 The bed of the canal leaving Measham High Street

You have to walk alongside another road to pass under the A42 and, once beyond this, the canal bed cannot be reached as what traces remain are intermittent and cross open fields with no access. Instead the bed of the railway has to be followed for about 1½ miles to Donisthorpe. There are reminders all along the route of mining in the past. Lakes, or meres, formed from subsidence; open, fenced-off shafts in the middle of fields; marker posts showing which mines are beneath your feet with their depths and abandoned pumping stations marked by their chimneys.

       

At Donisthorpe the road has to be followed for a few hundred yards where the restored section leading to Moira can be followed. Again, in Donisthorpe, there are reminders of past mining. A Miners’ Welfare Club still exists, the gates to the colliery are still in place and the War Memorial incorporates the wheel from a pits winding gear. The site of the colliery however, has been levelled and landscaped to provide a nature park. I asked a local guy about the pits. He had worked underground until the pit closed in 1991. I mentioned Margaret Thatcher at which point the guy baulked, spat on the floor and walked on without saying anymore. Take it there won’t be many people from around here that will piss on her body when it is eventually exhumed and burnt. 

   

 

The restored section of canal was followed until we came upon Moira Furnace. There had been rain and gales forecast for today. So far we had been lucky but at this point it started to rain, luckily it didn’t last but, being 5 miles from Snarestone, I decided not to go the extra mile or so to the northern terminus.

            

                                                            The beginning of the restored section of canal near Moira

Moira furnace is a well-known feature on the canal system, very iconic and a fascinating place. Iron is used in the production of steel; the process was invented in 1856 by Henry Bessemer. Before his invention iron alone was produced. This required three main ingredients; coal, iron ore and lime and sites around the country grew up in areas where all three were readily available, Moira being one. The working life of the furnace was short lived from 1804 until 1844 after which the beam engines, used to blow air into the furnace, were removed and the building converted into housing, all of which contributed to its survival. The furnace houses a museum and tea room, neither of which were open. The site houses the furnace and lime kilns and, surprisingly, components of the engines still survive, laying on an overgrown grassed area.

There is an inclined, arched bridgeway over the canal, adjoining the furnace. This is where the coal, iron ore and lime would have been wheelbarrowed and tipped into the top of the furnace. The molten iron and slag would have been drawn off the bottom of the furnace. The molten iron would then have been run into ingots that formed the shape of a feeding sow and became known as “pig iron”. The flooring of the cast iron shed still survives and tiles illustrate the shape of the ingots.   

                                                       Moira Furnace, Lime Kilns and Engine Parts

We headed for home, retracing our steps but following the bed of the railway all the way to Measham. After some shopping in the Co-op, we followed the bed of the railway out of the town. When the canal is eventually restored, it will follow this route through the town. The track was very wet, muddy and slippery, becoming clearer on clearing the town. It was not possible to follow the canal bed any further. It could be seen snaking across fields but there was fencing and hedging hindering the way. The footpath passed around the huge brickworks where bricks and blocks, tiles, chimney pots and drainage pipes are made. They say all of Britain’s chimney pots were made here in Victorian times, some boast if there is any truth to it.

The footpath exited onto the main road leading to Snarestone one mile away, although we could see the chimney of the pumping station at the terminus just over ¼ mile away across the fields. To get back to the canal bed would have entailed a further three mile walk. As it was now raining and sleeting we trudged up the road, not pleasant, reaching the boat after a 3½ hour, 9 mile walk. Harvey was filthy, wet and muddy and my feet were sore, but well worth the effort.

The name Joseph Wilkes kept on repeating itself. Wilkes (1733-1805) was a local landowner, businessman, industrialist and agricultural improver, associated with the area around Measham in the early part of the Industrial Revolution. He transformed Measham from a tiny mining village to a model settlement of the Industrial Revolution, opening a bank, an inn, building factories, a boat yard, a market, vicarage and housing for his workers. He was responsible for developing the mines in the local areas and further afield; he furthered the development of textile industries in and around the locality; he was active in the building of coaching inns and turnpike roads and was a promoter of the Ashby Canal, at one time being the treasurer.

Many of the buildings of Wilkes’ empire were built with bricks manufactured at his own brickyard, still in existence today, and passed during the walk, although much changed. He was well known for his Jumb or Gob bricks. These oversized bricks were produced to lessen the burden of the Brick Tax, which was levied on every thousand bricks used. The Brick Tax was a property tax introduced in 1784 to help pay for the American Wars of Independence. A few buildings built with these bricks can still be seen in Measham today.  

                                                              Joseph Wilkes’ Sundial   

                                          Wilkes’ Gob bricks alongside normal sized brick in a wall in Measham

To commemorate Wilkes, a decorative mosaic displaying many of his enterprises sits beside Measham Railway Station museum. It is just a shame it is not in a more prominent position given his contribution to the development of the town.

Brenda caught the 3pm bus back to Snarestone having had her hair done and with a lovely bocquet of Christmas flowers. Although the finished result was good, she was disappointed with it as the hairdresser had completely cocked up, at one point her hair was completely yellow.

We adjourned to the Globe to catch up on each other’s day. Harvey stayed on the boat feeling sore and miserable after being dragged all over the Leicestershire countryside.