Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Opposite Junction 33 of the M6 is the fine Italianate villa of Ellel Grange, built 1857-1879
on top of a ridge. The adjacent church of St Mary is charming. Local bridges include an orna-
mental one with balustraded parapets across the canal and a double bridge with a wall down
the middle to separate farm and estate roads.
An aqueduct carries the canal over the River Cocker, which flows down through Bay Horse
where a Euston to Glasgow train ran into a local train in 1848 when two different companies
were running their trains over the same lines.
From Potters Brook can be seen the distinctive mushroom-shaped tower of Lancaster ser-
vices on the M6. The canal is crossed by the Lancashire Cycle Way at Forton. Forton's stir-
ring contribution to the war effort during the Second World War was the removal of the para-
pets of Stony Lane bridge so that enemy troops might be seen crossing it. Views are fre-
quently extensive from the canal. From here, the expanse of the Fylde, the coastal plain that
is Lancashire's market garden, can be seen. Inland, the fells are steadily rising again around
the Forest of Bowland.
Tank traps beside the canal at Ford Green show that the canal's defensive role was taken
very seriously. Brick bridge abutments by the canal just before Garstang are those of the
former Garstang & Knott End Railway, alternatively known as the Pilling Pig.
The canal passes under the A6 once again at Cathouse Bridge, Garstang formerly having
been a staging post on the A6. Among other bridges, it passes under a pipe bridge of 1927,
which carries water in a sweeping arch on its way from Barnacre Reservoir to Blackpool,
the former of which can be located by a trio of aerials. Thursday is Garstang's busy market
day, the market having received its charter from Edward II in 1310. The town hall with its
diminutive belltower, opposite the cobbled market place, dates from 1680. The church of St
Thomas is an 18th century structure. The Owd Tithe Barn, in stone and timber beside the
canal, was restored and reopened in 1973 as a canal and agricultural museum and restaurant.
It was in Garstang that an ice-breaking barge sank in 1945.
The canal leaves Garstang over the Wyre Aqueduct, a single elliptical 16m stone arch
passing 10m above the River Wyre. It passes round Bonds to turn just short of Greenhalgh
Castle. This was built in 1490 by the Earl of Derby and was a Royalist stronghold until it was
destroyed by the Roundheads in the Civil War. Now it is largely ruined.
Powerlines pass backwards and forwards over the canal for some distance. More tradition-
al power is seen at a coalyard where the railway and M6 come back alongside the canal for a
final 3km.
Catterall Basin was formerly the site of a papermill. These days a wooden bench seat sus-
pended on ropes as a garden swing beside the canal suggests a more leisurely pace of life.
The River Calder is passed in a siphon under the Calder Aqueduct.
Beyond an aerial in Catterall is the tower of St Helen's in Churchtown, a magnificent par-
ish church dating in parts from about 1300 and known as the Cathedral of the Fylde. The
