Lancaster Canal, South End

 I have posted previously about where the Lancaster Canal joined the Leeds Liverpool Canal here, and, on another web site, where it connected to the tramway. There are still traces of it between those two points. We will start from the south, and head north.


Whittle-le-Woods

The canal run some way east of Whittle-le-Woods, on an embankment, where is crossed the River Lostock. The aqueduct is still there and presumably still maintained to ensure the river can flow.



The canal turned somewhat westward, through a steep cutting, towards the village, passing through two very short tunnels, both of which have roads over them. When built, this was one long tunnel, but the tunnel collapsed in the 1830s, and so was split into two short tunnels, presumably to carry the roads.

This is the canal today before it enters the first tunnel.


And between the tunnels. You can just about see there is still water there.


There are old quarries in the hill above the canal still visible.


The end of the second tunnel is just about accessible; a footpath leads down from the road to the old towpath.


This is the view the other way, looking along the top path. The bridge at the end is Chorley Old Road.


The view from the bridge, looking towards where I took the photo above.


And the bridge from the other side, looking very different.


Just after the bridge, the canal has been filled in and, as you can see, grassed over. There was a fair-sized basin here, probably for loading barges with stone from the quarries.

It has been turned into an attractive feature with, to the left of the image above, a little set-piece, with a millstone which, I think, was quarried locally.


There are a lot of old building in Whittle-le-Woods.



The canal has been filled in for about 300 m.


All the way to the next bridge, again over Chorley Old Road. That bridge seems to have been removed altogether, and the canal continues into undergrowth.


Clayton-le-Woods

The canal turned left beyond the bridge, running more-or-less parallel to the road for maybe 750 m, before the road curves to the left, to meet Sandy Lane at the Lord Nelson pub, and the canal curved right, to pass under the road. One section in the middle has been grassed over, but besides that the canal has disappeared under modern housing developments.



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