If you know
Loughborough at all, you might have expected me to write about our unique
Carillon for the April Blogging A-Z Challenge, but I have written extensively
about this on the blog, and the most recent post was only in February this year – but well worth a read if you missed it!!
Or, I might
have written about the Corcoran family – a local doctor, his son, and his two
daughters, the latter being active Suffragettes – but again, I’ve already shared their story with you!
So, instead,
I am writing about our canal! I could have shared a walk along the canal with
you, or a trip on a narrow boat, but instead, I am sharing our canal
markers …
 |
| A selection of mile markers from the canals across our region that I have seen |
If you know
our canals at all, you’ll know that we are lucky enough to have a fabulous
stretch of canal running through our lovely town, but you’ll probably also have
noticed that we don’t have any mile markers! So, why am I writing about them,
you ask? Well, years ago, I’m supposing we did have some!
When our
Grand Union canal towards the Trent was built in 1778, and called at the time
the Loughborough Navigation after its founders, the Loughborough Navigation
Company, it was apparently the most profitable waterway in Britain. At the time,
the canal would not have been the tranquil place we know today, frequented only
by holidaymakers and day trippers, walkers and cyclists, but would have been dirty, smelly, noisy,
and a hive of activity. Barges would have been transporting goods like coal,
from one place to another – the quickest and easiest way, before the coming of
the railways, and the improved roads that we know today.
The
Loughborough Navigation began in what is today called Loughborough Basin, close
to the road junction of Bridge Street, and The Rushes. The Leicester Navigation
came about 20 years later, and ran from the Chain Bridge, which is on the right-hand
side just after you come out of the basin, to Leicester and beyond.
Rather like
the turnpike roads that required a traveller to pay a toll to use them, some of which was used to maintain the routes, the people
using the canal also had to pay a toll for their use. In order to help both the
bargees and the toll keepers know what the charge would be, (which was based on distance travelled and weight of cargo), mile markers were
installed along the routes. And this is why they show the distances between
places, rather than being used for directional help.
The Chain
Bridge was once a bridge with a chain across it. This was to ensure that bargees
didn’t pass from the Loughborough to the Leicester Navigation (or vice versa) without first paying the toll, as these canals were maintained by different companies, so some of the money paid in tolls
would go towards the upkeep of the canal.
The two tollhouses
on the Loughborough Navigation were situated at what we now call Loughborough
Lock (referred to by a local history expert as the Thorpe Fields or Town Lock),
and just beyond the Chain Bridge. I would imagine (meaning, I don’t know for
sure) that the properties that are still in those two locations are likely to
be the original lock-and-tollkeepers cottages. So, there were sure to have been
mile markers along our canal.
Of course, the
term ‘mile markers’ is in some cases a misnomer as many existing mile markers
that I’ve seen include quarter miles as well! There is a good example of this
in the Melton Carnegie Museum. The marker came from the Melton Navigation at
Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreak, which had been canalised in 1797, and is a branch off
the Leicester Navigation.
During World
War Two, the mile markers along the Melton Navigation were removed as part of
the government’s plan to make it more difficult for any enemy invaders to find
their way around the country, in a similar way that road signs were removed. It
is also possible that as the mile markers were likely to be cast iron,
they may have been melted down to aid the production of aeroplanes like
Spitfires and Hurricanes, or to make parts for ships and submarines, or
ammunition like ‘pineapple’ grenades and firearms.
One wonders
if the mile markers on the Loughborough and Leicester Navigations were also of
cast iron, and thus removed during World War two? However, it is known that
concrete mile markers were installed in 1939, and were placed at half-mile
intervals along the towpath, from the mouth of the River Soar, near Trent Lock.
These markers were apparently made in Loughborough, so perhaps it is safe to
assume that they were placed on the route into as well as out of Loughborough. Come to
think of it, I believe I’ve seen one along our canal somewhere, possibly under
the Great Central Railway bridge. The next time I walk along the canal I will
take a photograph to share with you!
____________________________________
This post is
part of a series in the 2024 ‘Blogging from A to Z April Challenge’.
____________________________________
Posted by
lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for
typos which are all mine!
_______________________________________________
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Dyer, Lynne
(2024). Canal mile markers. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/canal-mile-markers.html [Accessed 3 April 2024]
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