A walk along the canal to Stainton

Canal & River Trust are the charity who look after and bring to life 2,000 miles of waterways, because we believe that life is better by water.

Discover the story of the creation, demise and regeneration of the northernmost section of the Lancaster Canal, as you take a walk from Crooklands to Hincaster. Your guides, Bill Froggatt (Heritage Advisor, Canal & River Trust) and Carrie House (Towpath Trail Project Officer, Canal & River Trust/Lancaster Canal Regeneration Partnership), are on hand to tell you all about the area's history, industrial heritage, and the wildlife that makes the canal its home.

This interactive map has been created for Heritage Open Days 2020. While there are restrictions on our lives during the coronavirus crisis, we hope you enjoy this opportunity to explore the Lancaster Canal from the comfort of your own home. If you would like to visit any of the sites shown on this guided walk, each photograph has three words in the caption indicated by /// that can be used in conjunction with the what3words app to navigate to the specific location.

Scroll down to discover the story behind the stretch of the canal that the walk to Stainton follows.

The initial impetus for the canal came around 1770 from merchants of Lancaster wanting a link to the proposed Leeds & Liverpool Canal and Manchester to the south and to Kendal in the north. A route for the canal was surveyed in 1772 by engineer Robert Whitworth but it was another twenty years before a route, surveyed by engineer John Rennie, was agreed upon.

The Act of Parliament ‘for making and maintaining a navigable Canal from Kirkby Kendal in the county of Westmorland to West Houghton’ was obtained in 1792. The following year another Act was obtained to build a branch from the canal near Galgate to the recently completed (1787) Glasson Dock.

Construction started immediately under chief engineer John Rennie with the first contract let for eighteen miles between Borwick and Ellel Grange, followed by the length between Galgate and Garstang and the southern section between Bark Hill (Wigan) and Nightingales (Chorley).The canal between Preston and Tewitfield was opened in November 1797. The southern section was linked ‘temporarily’ to the northern section by a tramline in 1804 until such time that an aqueduct across the River Ribble could be built. In the event, the aqueduct was never built and the temporary solution lasted until 1864 when the southern section of the canal was leased to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

From 1805 the route north from Tewitfield to Kendal was reviewed and altered from that proposed by Rennie (a new Act of Parliament was required to take account of the route change and this was obtained in 1807).

Construction began in 1813 under company engineer Thomas Fletcher, and the canal was completed north of Hincaster by William Crossley Jr. The canal reached Kendal in 1819 with an opening ceremony being held on the 18th June – “The 18th June was a glorious day for Old England. – The 18th of June will be a proud day for Kendal” (This date was the fourth anniversary of the victory at Waterloo).

To celebrate the opening an excellent dinner was held at the Town Hall during which 51 toasts were given ranging from “The King”, through “The Town and Trade of Kendal” to “Honest men and bonny lasses” and “Champagne to our real friends and real pain to our sham friends”. Presumably towards the end of the evening plenty of champagne had been drunk.

The Glasson Branch, which connects the canal at Galgate to the sea at Glasson Dock, was built between 1820 and 1826.

Commercial traffic on the Lancaster Canal north of Lancaster ceased in late 1944 and the canal north of Stainton Crossing Bridge was drained following the Transport Act of 1955. Then, during the 1960’s, the construction of the M6 motorway cut the canal above Tewitfield in several places. The canal is now only navigable between Preston and Tewitfield and along the Glasson Branch.

There are today over two hundred bridges crossing the Lancaster Canal. There are ninety road bridges, eighty-six occupation bridges (built to connect landowners and farmers to their and) and a handful of foot and rail bridges.

The 1792 Act that permitted construction of the canal prohibited construction across a ‘Common Highway, publick or private Bridleway, or Foot Path’ without first making and perfecting a ‘Bridge or Bridges, Passage or Passages, Arch or Arches, over or under the same Highway, public or private Bridleway, or Footpath’ and so commonly the bridge was built adjacent to the road, and the road diverted across it when completed.

By law, the bridge had to be of brick or stone with an approach no steeper than 2 ½ inches rise in every yard. Exceptionally wooden or swivel bridges were permitted.

The bridges in the Stainton area were built by John Airey, Thomas Jon and Robert Dickenson and cost between £225 and £270.

Some of the bridges still have cast iron rubbing strips that protected the masonry from damage caused by the towing rope. That on bridge 168 is signed by T. Saul.

Aqueducts carry the canal over features like roads and rivers. There are approximately twenty-four aqueducts on the canal from the mighty Lune Aqueduct at Lancaster, to more modest structures like Stainton Aqueduct which takes the canal across Stainton Beck.

The construction of Stainton Aqueduct was let to John Airey following a meeting at the Royal Oak Inn at Burton-in-Kendal on the 27th June 1814. Mr Airey agreed to build the aqueduct for £945. The limestone for the aqueduct was got from Woodhouse Quarry, 1 ½ miles to the south west.

During construction of the aqueduct and the corresponding embankment across Stainton valley, a railroad was laid between the construction site of Hincaster Tunnel, 1 mile to the west, and Stainton. This was primarily used to transport spoil from the tunnel to be used in the construction of the embankment but may also have served to transport the stone for the aqueduct.

The aqueduct is founded on timber piles driven by a steam engine. Work started late October 1814. By August 1815, the ‘invert’ (the masonry work upon which the Beck flows) and the abutments were complete up to the springing point of the arch. The aqueduct was completed by January 1816.

Stainton Aqueduct is unusual in that it has a path running beneath it. This was almost certainly included to provide access between Stainton to the north and the old flax mill that once stood immediately to the south of the aqueduct.

In December 2015 Stainton Aqueduct was severely damaged by the successive storms Desmond and Eva. That December two records were broken, for the amount of rainfall over a 24-hour period, and for rainfall over a 48-hour period. Elevated water levels in Stainton Beck washed away the stone apron and undermined the foundations of the wing walls causing one to collapse and the other to rotate out of position. The aqueduct has been repaired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Lancaster Canal Regeneration Partnership.

Hincaster Tunnel was one of two tunnels on the canal, the other being at Whittle Hills Tunnel near Chorley.

The construction of Hincaster Tunnel began in 1813 when on the 17th April an item appeared in the Lancaster Gazette ‘TO BE LET At the King’s Arms, in Kendal, on Tuesday the 27th day of April, 1813, at six o’clock in the evening; THE SINKING of a PIT or SHAFT, from the surface of the ground, in a certain field in Hincaster, to the depth of the intended Tunnel for the Canal through that part’. The shaft was dug by Mr Rowe, and he was paid £36 for it.

The tunnel was noted as being finished in the minutes of the meeting of proprietors on the 3rd February 1818. Just over a year later, April 1819, the Westmoreland Gazette & Kendal Advertiser reported: ‘On Wednesday, the 14th inst, a boat loaded with paving slabs came up from the south end of the Tunnel to the new basin in Aynam. This is the first vessel which has navigated the Canal as far as the town of Kendal.’

At intervals along the towpath you will see two types of stones – winching posts and milestones. 

Winching Posts

Whilst the Canal Company did everything it could to keep the water in the canal, there were times, for routine or emergency repair, when it was necessary to let the water out – that is, to ‘de-water’ the canal. To this end, a series of plugs were put in the bottom of the canal. These plugs are known as bed valves and take the form of a trap door and they were opened by horse power.

There are three bed-valves on the canal between Crooklands and Stainton and their location can be identified by the corresponding winching posts on the towpath. The winching posts take the form of a limestone post, up to 18 inches in height with an iron ring attached. One end of a chain is attached to the bed valve, the chain is run through the iron ring on the post and attached to a horse. As the horse is walked down the towpath, the bed valve opens.

Two of the winch posts on this section were subsided or otherwise displaced and have been reinstated by the Lancaster Canal Trust.

Milestones

There are milestones on the canal, but unlike those on the roads, they are not there to tell a traveller the distance to their destination, rather they are there to tell the traveller how far they have travelled. Their purpose is to protect the income of the Canal Company, not to aid the carrier. Consequently, when walking along the towpath and approaching a milestone, you will see the distance from the town you are walking away from, not the distance to the town you are walking towards.

Tolls had to be paid by carriers to the Canal Company, and the toll due was dependent on what was being carried and how far it had travelled. The 1792 Act of Parliament that permitted the construction of the canal also established the rates for Tonnage (cost of carriage on the canal) and Wharfage (cost of storage on the wharf):

-       For coals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 ½ d per ton, per mile (a typical boat could carry 40 tons)

-       For limestone, slate, salt-ores, salt-rock, bricks, stone flags, iron-stone, coal-sleck, black-bass, iron-cinders, gravel, sand, clay, marl and manure . . . . . . . . . . ½ d per ton, per mile

-       Lime, pig-iron, cast-iron, and bar-iron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 d per ton, per mile

-       For timber, dying-woods, and all other goods, wares, merchandise, and commodities not before enumerated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 d per ton, per mile

A canal with as few locks as the Lancaster Canal was ideally suited for passenger transport as the journey would not be delayed passing through the locks.

On the 21st June 1819 Gregson wrote to John Moss, Master of the Lune Packet Boat, and James Bellingham, Master of the Kent Packet Boat outlining the rules of operation:

-       You are not to sell any Wine or Spirituous Liquors on board the Boat . . .

-       You are not prohibited by the Committee from selling Malt Liquor . . .

-       You will provide Tea, Coffee and other refreshments for the passengers and keep your Boat neat and clean and the Windows in good repair

-       You are not to permit any person to remain in the Boat after your arrival at Lancaster and at Kendal; as soon as the boat arrives deliver your parcels . . . if any parcel is lost, you will be made accountable for it

-       You are to charge 3/- for each passenger in the fore Cabin Between Lancaster and Kendal and 2/- for each in the after Cabin.   

-       You are to charge 9d per cwt for carriage of all goods above 1 cwt weight; for small parcels to Kendal 6d, halfway or under 4d. Spirits 1 ½ d per Gallon.

In the 1830s three new ‘swift’ boats were introduced, Waterwitch, Swiftsure and Swallow to counter increasing competition from the railways. The journey between Preston and Kendal subsequently took eight hours, compared to the ten hours of the earlier service.

Jots & Tittles by a Wandering Trio describes a journey on the Packet Boat from Preston to Kendal made in 1846:

‘This is pleasant traveling, this gliding along the water, with the cantering horses and a postillion at the end of the swinging rope before us. The banks are high and green with the freshness of early spring. Through the balustrades of the aqueduct we see the broad Lune flowing thro’ its green meadows with the Castle hill of Lancaster rising up in the sunshine beyond.

The Trio, striking on the inner door of the cabin, demand refreshment. Veal pies and plum cakes and broad Captains biscuits. The last serve for plates till the pies are ended.

At occasional bridges the passage boat is drawn towards the side and some passenger quickly leaps to shore and stumbles against the expectant attendants – his luggage is clumsily ejected after its owner. The postillion cracks his whip the rope tightens and leaps from the water with a shower of drops and we’re off again.’

As we have seen, a canal with so few locks was ideal for passenger transport as it enabled a faster journey. The disadvantage was that if there was a breach in the canal, so much more water would be lost. To reduce the risk, stop-gates that would close automatically in the event of a breach, were installed.

There were two types of stop-gate devised: one that laid on the bed of the canal and rose up into the flow of water, or those that hung vertically either side of the canal and operated like upper lock gates.

On the 24th July 1795, Samuel Gregson (clerk to the Lancaster Canal) wrote to Joseph Priestley (clerk of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal) seeking advice on stop gates: “I shall consider myself much obliged by your informing me if you have made any improvements in your stop gates whether the falling gates are in use or what kind you have found to be the most serviceable. We have generally in our bridges a cill and groove for sliding planks. Adjoining valleys it may be advisable to place gates and we could wish to fix those which experience has found to be the best.”

The response is not recorded, but in January 1796, Gregson advised Henry Eastburn (the canal engineer on the South End) “the Committee think it will be best to erect stop gates in the form of upper lock gates instead of the falling ones especially near valleys or large embankments”

The stop gates at Stainton Bridge End Bridge (no 170) take the form of the double pointed upper lock gates. The double gates protected the canal whether the breach was above or below of the gate.

In his letter Gregson mentioned a “groove for sliding planks”. These can be seen on many of the bridges of the canal and most clearly on Stainton Crossing Bridge (172). Stop planks or stanks were placed in these grooves to isolate a section of canal so that it might be de-watered for planned maintenance. 

The construction of the canals, their embankments, cuttings, aqueducts, and bridges changed the nations landscape. Beyond the physical manifestation of the canal, there were more subtle changes.

The ability to transport heavy goods long distances changed the way our buildings looked – areas where houses were traditionally thatched now saw the introduction of slate roofs; brick or stone buildings replaced the more traditional timber-framed building. This may have impacted Lancashire and Westmorland less as there was always a good local supply of stone and slate.

But it has been said that the construction of the Lancaster Canal introduced to Lancashire and Cumbria for the first time the Georgian style of architecture. This might not be so surprising if you consider that the engineers that built the canal (and there is some evidence that they also designed buildings not associated with the canal whilst they were here) were not local and had previously worked across the country. John Rennie, for example, a Scot, was based in London at the time he was working on the canal.

During the construction phase the canal engineers frequently moved roads if their position was inconvenient for the canal. On the stretch of canal between Crooklands and Hincaster there are four places where the roads layout was altered. There are two reasons for this: firstly, the canal company was not permitted to close roads whilst constructing bridges, therefore it was common to build the new bridge next to the road and divert the road over it when it was complete; secondly, there were places where it would have been too difficult or expensive to bridge the canal – at Stainton, for example, the canal was built over a crossroads – so much easier to move the road than design a bridge that accommodated four roads.

“it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Company of Proprietors and their Successors by and with the Consent and Approbation of the Commissioners and Trustees of the publick Highways, respectively touched upon or crossed by the Line or Lines of the said Navigation and upon indemnifying the Owners of Lands in Manner provided by this Act to make such Alterations Deviations and Diversions of and in such publick High Roads as may and shall by such Commissioners or Trustees be first deemed and declared best and most convenient for publick Use” Act of Parliament, 1792

The Northern Reaches of the Lancaster Canal is a patchwork of wet and drained sections, and passes through a variety of habitats including farmland, woodland, and limestone-rich areas. Walking the Towpath Trail between Millness and Hincaster is a fantastic way to see a range of flora and fauna.

Canal & River Trust is a member of Lancaster Canal Regeneration Partnership (LCRP), alongside local authorities and waterway restoration groups. The partnership celebrates, promotes and delivers the regeneration of the Lancaster Canal and its communities. LCRP’s short-term aim is the creation of an accessible shared-use trail between Kendal and Lancaster (also known as the Kendal to Lancaster Towpath Trail); its long-term ambition is to fully restore the Lancaster Canal, so that it is navigable between Preston and Kendal.

LCRP is currently working on the Kendal to Lancaster Towpath Trail Project, which is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This project complements the recent restoration of Stainton Aqueduct, by developing a series of community activities and public events which encourage visitors to use the towpath responsibly for leisure, commuting, health & wellbeing, and exploring nature. Project volunteers meet fortnightly to carry out maintenance work, and NLHF has funded a series of training opportunities which are free for volunteers and the local community, including beginner-level dry stone walling and oral history techniques. New navigational signage, interpretation boards and an audio trail are also planned, which will help visitors discover the area’s fascinating history.

Visit  www.lcrp.org.uk/  for more information about the partnership, its members and projects, and how you can get involved as a volunteer. 

Lancaster Canal Trust, another LCRP member, are also very active on the Northern Reaches. This group was formed in 1963 and has since been working towards the full restoration of the Lancaster Canal, whilst carrying out ongoing maintenance at sites such as Hincaster Tunnel. Since 2012, Lancaster Canal Trust volunteers have been working hard to restore the First Furlong, a section of the canal between Stainton Crossing and Sellet Hall Bridge. They also operate the Waterwitch trip boat from the stables opposite the Crooklands Hotel. You can find out more about Lancaster Canal Trust on their website:  https://www.lctrust.co.uk/