Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
9
Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal
Distance
39km from Marston Junction to Bath Yard Basin
Highlights
Battlefield Line heritage railway
Site of the Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485
Moira Furnace
Conkers Waterside Centre
Navigation Authority
Canal & River Trust
Canal Society
Ashby Canal Association
OS 1:50,000 Sheets
128 Derby & Burton upon Trent
140 Leicester
The Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal, Ashby Canal or Moira Cut was intended to be a major link in
our canal system, extending to the Trent valley to join the Commercial Canal and then serving
to Liverpool or Manchester. Running north across Warwickshire and Leicestershire from the
Coventry Canal, it never got any further north than Overseal and never even reached Ashby-
de-la-Zouch itself. To get down to the Trent would have required heavy and expensive locking.
The canal, as it remains, has no locks at all except at Moira on the disconnected section, and it
is part of one of the longest level pounds in Britain as it follows the 91 m contour. Extensions
northwards were as plateways or tramroads and the canal carried heavy coal traffic, although
it was not very profitable. In 1804, the year it was opened, good-quality coal was found at
Moira, supplied by canal to Oxford colleges, among other customers. Medicinal springs were
found at the canal head in the 19th century, resulting in passenger boat traffic, and the canal
