Ashby Canal

The Ashby Canal was opened in 1804 to run from the Coventry Canal to Moira. It never went to the town of Ashby de la Zouch, the route there and beyond being replaced by tramways. Lock-free, it is popular with boaters and walkers wanting to enjoy a quiet, rural canal. This tranquility masks its industrial purpose, being built originally to transport coal from the productive Leicestershire and South Derbyshire coalfield to markets both local and distant. Widely illustrated, The Ashby Canal. Past, Present and Future plots the rise and fall of the canal, to its risk of abandonment (ironically caused by the reason for its birth) and its resurgence as a leisure route.