Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
station. The canal follows the River Sence, with its otters, before turning sharply to cross it
on a stone aqueduct.
A line of narrowboat moorings curves round a medieval pond in front of the village, which
dates from Saxon times and from which Saxon jewellery has been unearthed. Prominent sign-
ing makes the Rising Sun a difficult public house to miss, should you wish to visit it.
Some stands of woodland are found alongside this section of canal: oaks, hawthorns, wil-
lows and, appropriately, ashes, with coltsfoot and butterbur among them along the banks in
the spring. The woods hide Gopsall Park, the grounds of the former Gopsall House where
Handel may have composed the
Messiah
.
A picnic table at Gopsall Wharf is one of a number that have been placed along the length
of the canal.
A rabbit warren has been dug in the embankment between the canal and the line of the
former railway, which used to cross to the south of Snarestone.
The canal's major structure is the 230m long tunnel at Snarestone. It is unusual for a canal
to end beyond a tunnel rather than before a collapsed bore. The line of the canal snakes
through the tunnel but the full bore of the tunnel is visible all the way through. As the tunnel
has no towpath, the line of the former horse path leads from before the Globe Inn over the
top of the low hill, on which the 18th century farming village of Snarestone is built.
The canal currently ends just above a Victorian Gothic pumping station, built in 1892 to
supply water to Hinckley, its chimney conspicuous in the local countryside. The canal's dead
end makes it susceptible to collecting floating debris and an oil film. The nearest access point
is a gate, kept locked by the canal society.
The present line ends just outside the National Forest and is mostly in a Conservation Area
that boasts nine species of dragonfly (including the rare red-eyed damsel), the flat-stalked
pondweed (which is rare elsewhere) and a fair sample of herons, coots, moorhens, mallards,
kingfishers and a few swans. Restoration to Donisthorpe will make use of a disused railway
line where the canal line is no longer accessible. Measham station has become Measham Mu-
seum.
Beginning at Donisthorpe is a 2km section of canal that is wide, fully restored and in ex-
cellent condition, home to a canal society trip boat and a maintenance craft.
Initially it runs between a minor road and woodland planted on colliery spoil. After
limekilns it is crossed by an arched bridge that feeds directly into Moira Furnace, which is
now partially restored as a museum. It was an 1805 blast furnace manufacturing pig-iron with
the compressed air blast produced by beam engine, but was closed after two years since it
was uneconomical.
Beyond a swing bridge the canal passes teasels and a coach depot as it swings into the back
of Moira, named after Moira in Northern Ireland. The tower of a fire station locates Moira
Lock, installed because of 3m of subsidence.
