Lancaster Canal & Tramroad today

This contemporary route description covers the former Lancaster Canal and tramroad between Aqueduct Street, Preston and Johnson's Hillock Locks north of Chorley. It was compiled between 2022 and 2023. 

To trace Preston Basin and the route of the Lancaster Canal and the tramroad, please use the OS 25 inch to 1 mile scale map, published in 1912: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=53.75991&lon=-2.70776&layers=168&b=1. Use the blue circle transparency function to overlay present day satellite imagery over the maps or the Side by Side function. 

Alternatively, use the earlier OS map at a larger 1:1,056 town plan scale, published in 1849: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.3&lat=53.75958&lon=-2.70738&layers=117746212&b=1 or the OS National Grid 1:10,560 scale maps published between 1944 and 1972 which captures the route gradually encroached upon and cut by new roads, residential and commercial developments: https://maps.nls.uk/os/national-grid/.

For historic images of the route including aerial photography please see Gallery and search the Preston Digital Archive: www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/.

The site of Preston Basin lies largely beneath the car park of the Corporation Street Retail Park. The junction of the basin with the Lancaster Canal also lies beneath the same car park and a small segment beneath a bend in the A59 Ringway. 

The site of the Packet House and basin lies under the boundary between the rear of the British Heart Foundation shop (previously an Aldi supermarket until closure in spring 2024) within the Corporation Street Retail Park and Brunel Court (previously Ladywell House). Further north from the canal and basin junction and Marsh Lane, the alignment has been built on by an annex and two wings of Brunel Court. 

To the south, the original meeting point of the Lancaster Canal and the tramroad lies beneath Network Rail's Corporation Street depot, 40 ft north of Fishergate.

Where building works have not taken place with the passage of the years, the canal and basin is likely to be largely intact lying a few feet beneath the ground. 

Much of the route of the Lancaster Canal’s ‘lost mile’ in Preston remains remarkably intact and easy to trace on the ground. Aqueduct Street marks the start of the present-day terminus of the Lancaster Canal’s North End in Preston, and the nearby Ashton basin restored by the Lancaster Canal Trust in 1972 lies 150 yards from the head of the canal. The street was widened and realigned in the 1960s thus severing the remaining ¾ mile of canal southwards to Preston Basin, now known as the ‘lost mile’. 

The name Aqueduct Street refers to the short stone bridge that took the canal over the street, then a narrow, single lane road. Limekilns built into the embankment of the canal to the north in what was then open countryside. A short residential road called Lime Street once existed near here which now forms part of the entrance to Preston Industrial Plastics just west of the West Coast Mainline. The route from here can be traced immediately east of Aqueduct Street on an embankment along the north boundary of Dewhurst Industrial Estate, and a short section prior to passing beneath the West Coast Mainline is used as a storage area for Just Citroën Preston car showroom which is accessed by a short road. 

The well maintained, Grade II listed Fylde Road Viaduct carries the West Coast Mainline over the canal through its northernmost skewed arch. The arch is built from buff ashlar sandstone, in contrast to the brick spans to the immediate south, although the crossing over the Fylde Road itself is built from stone. The archway is fenced off to the public. The canal then passes along the northern boundary of Fylde Road Industrial Estate where it once widened to form Green Bank Wharf. 

The railway alignment widens here to the immediate north of the archway on the east side of the line to accommodate lines that led into the former Greenbank Goods Station, now used as a car park for the University of Lancashire. 

Road access to properties behind 140 Fylde Road mirrors the former bend in the Lancaster Canal. From here, the route turns southeast under Fylde Road towards Maudland Road bridge. Fylde Road bridge (formerly Moss Bridge) retains its cast iron railings and stone parapet on the south side, telltale signs that the canal and towpath once passed beneath. In the Preston Chronicle newspaper published on 13 July 1839, it was claimed this was the first skew bridge ever built in the country, designed by William Cartwright. 

 The temporary terminus of the Lancaster Canal was made here in 1797 when the area was known as Spitall's or Spittal's Moss, and this section is now sometimes referred to as 'Miley Green'. 

In the 'University of Central Lancashire Masterplan Framework' released on 19 November 2015, it is proposed this section of former canal will be turned into a linear park between Fylde Road and Maudland Road along with a section of former Preston and Longridge Railway that crosses the former canal on a bridge.

The canal made its way in a south-easterly direction from Fylde Road to the Preston and Longridge Railway bridge in a shallow cutting, now a grassy corridor which forms an open space and playground. The Preston and Longridge Railway bridge is maintained as an access route for the disused Preston and Longridge railway line and crosses the canal which at this point is a marshy, reed filled depression. This is the only section of the 'lost mile' that has remained relatively untouched since the de-navigation of the canal in the late 1950s and early 1960s, although it is not publicly accessible.

In 2006, an Awards for All funded exhibition was held by the now defunct Preston City Link Canal Trust in Preston Minster to demonstrate how the Lancaster Canal between its present terminus at Aqueduct Street and Maudland Road bridge could be restored. The reopened canal would feature a new aqueduct over Aqueduct Street and a marina beneath the Preston and Longridge Railway bridge by Maudland Road bridge and the University of Lancashire. The trust was established by Colin Barnes, a retired architect (see also the Preston Basin, the Ribble Aqueduct and the Tramroad under History of Preston Basin). A British Waterways pre-feasibility study indicated the proposals were viable (Trevitt, p15) and the route is safeguarded should the plans be revived in the future (UCLan Masterplan Report: Consultation Draft, p17).

The brick arch to allow the canal to pass beneath Maudland Road bridge can be seen from the University of Lancashire’s (previously the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan)) campus by the Maudland Building and is now used as a storage area for the university.  The bridge is made from brick and is substantially wider than the original crossing built by the canal company. 

From the early 1959 onwards, the canal and two side basins off Kendal Street and Leighton Street between Maudland Road bridge and Marsh Lane were drained and partly built over for an extension of the Harris College of Further Education between 1960 and 1963 (The Changing Face of Preston) which now forms the main campus of the University of Lancashire. 

In the 'University of Central Lancashire Masterplan Framework' released on 19 November 2015, it is proposed the current Wharf Building within the campus be demolished and replaced by a green space called Wharf Square which will pay homage to the former canal.

At Marsh Lane, the railings and stone parapet of the bridge (previously named Worsted Bridge) remain intact along the north side of the road. 

The coarse stone wall that bordered the coal wharves along Ladywell Street remains as a boundary wall from Marsh Lane to the pedestrian entrance of Brunel Court. 

On the corner of Ladywell Street, Chandler Street and Heatley Street stands the stone Grade II listed Hosiery House (now Ladywell Halls) which would have once overlooked Preston Basin. It is described as, 'Built in the period 1824-49 on Ladywell Street this is a four storey, stone built, 5 by 10 bay warehouse structure. The floors comprise wooden joists and transverse beams supported by cast-iron, circular section columns. The roof structure comprises a series of nine softwood king-post trusses with fish-bone struts, each of which was supported by a pair of cast-iron hanging knee braces to the collars and unusual large cast-iron braces under each end of the roof trusses. Now converted to student accommodation.' (Nevell and George, p14).

Evidence of the canal and basin could and can be found on public houses, street names and a railway depot near the route of the Lancaster Canal. The Lamb & Packet at 91 Friargate on the corner with Kendal Street is a reference to the packet boat waiting shed by the canal on Kendal Street (previously Canal Street), The Boatman’s Arms at 53 Marsh Lane which provided stablings for horses in its outbuilding (which replaced Birkett's Square and may have replaced an earlier pub called the Fly Boat Tavern) was demolished in 2007 and replaced by Boatman’s Court, The Watering Trough at 125 Fylde Road (closed in 2002 and converted to accommodation) and The Lime Kiln at 288 Aqueduct Street was demolished in 2022. 

The Bridge Inn (demolished) on the corner of 1 Maudland Road and Bolton Street (now Pollard Street) referred to the nearby bridge over the canal, and the Jolly Tars (earlier the Jolly Tars and Packet Boat Inn) (demolished) on 18 Mount Pleasant (now Ladywell Street) referred to both the canal and its packet boat service. The Ship Inn at 3 and 5 Fylde Road (now Ships and Giggles) was most likely named in reference to the nearby canal. 

The Wharf Building, part of the University of Lancashire’s campus off Corporation Street and the Chandler Building on Edward Street are named in reference to the canal. Bridge Street Mill on the corner of Marsh Lane and Edward Street, and Canal Street Mill on Canal Street and Foster’s Square were both demolished and the land is now part of University of Lancashire’s main campus. Back Canal Street was partly cleared for the construction of the Victoria Jubilee Training School which opened in 1897, incorporating ‘facilities connected with training for the cotton industry, such a weaving shed with eighty handlooms and twenty powerlooms, a warping and winding room, and rooms for design, pattern realisation, textile analysis and weaving and spinning. The school also developed facilities for training electrical and mechanical engineering: £500 was donated by Dick, Kerr and Co.’ (Garlington, p41). It is now University of Lancashire’s Harris Building. 

Many of these streets here were home to bargee families ‘and were often left empty for periods when the family was working on the canal’ (Rigby, 2006, p6). It was not uncommon for entire families to live on the barges in cabins as they plied the canal and became more common after the 1840s as the railways began to undercut the canals. Wives often piloted the barge on the tiller while their husbands walked alongside the horse towing the vessel.

The Canal Boats Act of 1877 aimed at preventing overcrowding and the spread of disease on barges which were subject to inspection. Registration, marking and numbering of all boats, barges and floats became compulsory.

According to the 'Journal of Canal Inspections 1929-1938', Baines Brothers of Preston, coal merchants owned 17 barges having bought out other traders (Rigby, 2007, p35). They initially had their office at the north corner of Ladywell Street and Mount Pleasant West which later became the Jolly Tars public house. A number of these vessels were bought by Dan Ashcroft, who with his three sons, Dan, Joe, and Jack, formed Ashcroft Carriers Ltd in 1942. 

Joe Ashcroft took the last commercial barge from the Lancaster Canal near Preston Basin to Storey's White Cross Mills in Lancaster in 1947, but due to frozen weather and ice on the canal the coal never reached its intended destination (Rigby, 2007, p37). With its coal delayed, Storey's switched to oil and the coal was re-sold to the Royal Albert Hospital in Lancaster (Gavan, p31).

Chandler Street just north of Preston Basin and Kendal Street (previously Canal Street) off Corporation Street references canal chandlery and the canal’s northern terminus respectively. Wharf Street, paralleling the basin to the north, disappeared by the late 1930s as part of the land sale for the Barton Townley car showroom. Network Rail’s Dock Street sidings refers to the short dry dock used for the repair of barges which formed a junction with Lancaster Canal, opposite the entrance to Preston Basin.

There is little trace of the tramroad’s terminus with the Lancaster Canal North End and its alignment including its ‘splice roads’ (sidings) lie beneath the present-day Corporation Street, Ringway and Network Rail’s Dock Street sidings. 

The alignment of the tunnel remains in use to this day as an access road off Charnley Street to the Fishergate Shopping Centre car park. 

It was extensively rebuilt and widened in 1884 by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) Company to access Butler Street Goods Yard and no trace of the original tunnel remains.

A fragment of the old tramroad can be found today behind (north) of Mick's Hut takeaway at 21 Corporation Street, accessed off Falkland Street. A coarse stone wall marks the high boundary and retaining wall of the tramroad as it emerged north of the Fishergate Tunnel and broadly speaking, trifurcated with lines heading directly head on towards the hurreys set above the end of the Lancaster Canal, east to coal yards on Charnley Street and Fleet Street, northeast to the wharves at Preston Basin and northwest to the Lancaster Canal Foundry and coal yards on Dock Street. Note that the north portal of the Fishergate tramroad tunnel emerged between where 3 and 4 Victoria Buildings on Fishergate presently stand. 

A car park at the north end of Falkland Street borders the western side of the former tramroad alignment now marked by mature trees. Note the tramroad would have been in cutting here, a few feet above the surface of the Lancaster Canal (the canal was 82 ft above mean sea level) with the retaining wall rising towards Fishergate which lies on a ridge. See Jim Danby's photos of this wall in the late 1970s on the Gallery.

View the site of the wall on an 1849 published OS map and compare it with present day satellite imagery, see: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=19.9&lat=53.75786&lon=-2.70590&layers=117746212&b=1.

A buttressed stone retaining wall marks the southern boundary of the former alignment between the tramroad splice roads serving coal yards and the disused St. Wilfred's Cemetery on St. Wilfred's Street. It can be viewed from Corporation Street between the present day wooden sided Preston City (formerly Railway) Mission and the Premier Inn hotel. At its peak, there were about 14 splice roads or sidings serving coal yards pointing north with the furthest, easterly siding almost reaching Fox Street. Note the cemetery opened in 1817 to serve St. Wilfred's Church and Preston's Catholic community and closed in 1854. It is now a surface car park.

View the site of the wall on an 1849 published OS map and compare it with present day satellite imagery, see: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=19.6&lat=53.75836&lon=-2.70530&layers=117746212&b=1&o=100.

On Fishergate, the upper storey façade of Cartwright’s purpose built, ashlar stone dressed Georgian home is visible above the Primark store, incorporated into the Fishergate Shopping Centre during construction in 1985. From the upper floors of his home looking north Cartwright would have had a view of the Lancaster Canal and Preston Basin nearing completion in 1803 and 1804.

From his garden at the rear of his property, Cartwright would have had a view of the southern portal of the Fishergate tramroad tunnel, the tramroad embankment heading towards Garden Street and Alms House Meadow.

Photographs of William Cartwright's home prior to and during incorporation into the Fishergate Shopping Centre can be found on the Preston Digital Archive.

To the south, the tramroad embankment remains largely undisturbed although it was regraded and narrowed most likely when the L&YR built the road access tunnel from Charnley Street in 1884, reusing the alignment of the tramroad tunnel and constructing the commodious five storey warehouse to the immediate west of the former embankment, which principally handled cotton from Liverpool for Preston's mills (Gregson, p46). The embankment forms a grassy and tree lined boundary between the Fishergate Shopping Centre’s car park and Mount Street.

Two tramroad sidings once formed a junction here, one west to a timber yard terminating where Sports Direct in the Fishergate Shopping Centre now stands and another east to the rear of houses on Mount Street, most likely for a small coal yard possibly serving a timber yard visible on an OS 1:1,056 Town Plan published in 1849 at the southern end of Theatre Street. This siding may have also served Preston Gas-Light Company and works on Avenham Lane and Syke Street although it is difficult to see an access point to the yard from Garden Street or Mount Street. The company commenced operations in 1816 and was served by coal carried on the tramroad and then onto horse and cart to the works (Hardacre, 2023). Alternatively, coal destined for the works may have left the tramroad near Avenham Colonnade near the top of the Avenham Incline, the shortest distance between the tramroad and the gas works.

Due to land constraints, or in anticipation of housing, a short section of tramroad embankment north of Garden Street and west of Mount Street was supported by a stone retaining wall to about the point of the tramroad spur with the aforementioned coal yard which possibly serving a timber yard at the very southern end of Theatre Street. The stone wall survives to this day behind 18 Garden Street and houses 86A to 94 Mount Street and bears a strong resemblance to the sleeper block stone used to mount the tramplates.

The northern stone bridge abutment on Garden Street is still inspected and occasionally maintained by the Department for Transport. It crossed the street on a short wooden bridge over broad morass created by the Avenham Syke or River Syke. 

The Garden Street bridge would have been a simple wooden span with an identical stone abutment on the south side of the street, most likely removed soon after the closure of the tramroad in 1864 for the terraced housing along the south side of Garden Street that remains today. The span is labelled on the OS 1:1,056 town plan published in 1849 as a 'Wooden Bridge'.

The main channel of the Syke itself appears to have passed beneath the tramroad embankment approximately 60 ft north of the north bridge abutment, according to the 1:1,056 town plan OS map published in 1849. The remainder of the Syke here was culverted in 1812 (Friends of Winckley Square, Mount Street and Garden Street). 

Alongside the facsimile Tram Bridge spanning the River Ribble, the Garden Street bridge abutment and tramroad embankment remain some of the strongest reminders of the former Lancaster Canal Tramroad in central Preston.

A blue plaque was installed on the north bridge abutment in the 2000s by the Preston & South Ribble Civic Trust to commemorate the former tramroad and bridge. It has since been removed, presumably stolen.

The plaque was replaced in 2024, with the correct wording, 'This last remaining stone abutment supported a timber bridge of the OLD TRAM ROAD 1803-1879 connecting the Preston Canal Basin and Walton Summit, (Lancaster Canal)'.

The route can be traced through property at the rear of East Cliff Road, west of Our Lady of Victories Church and the car park of City Space House on East Cliff.

The tramroad passed between Ribblesdale Place and Overleigh House bordering Avenham Park and the route is now absorbed into the garden of the latter. Note when the tramroad was first built, East Cliff had not been cut between East Cliff Road and Ribblesdale Place. The retention of an opening in the garden wall bordering the northern boundary of Overleigh House may well be a legacy of the former tramroad. The opening, marked today by two brown wooden gates, later formed an entrance to a driveway to the house. The owners of Overleigh House have previously found tramroad sleeper blocks buried beneath their garden (Hardacre, 2023) and the line of the tramroad can be faintly traced through the garden as it heads in a south-easterly direction. Please note this garden is private.

The tramroad then forms part of a network of paths skirting the natural amphitheatre of Avenham Valley and Avenham Park below Ribblesdale Place and Avenham Colonnade. The section of path beneath Ribblesdale Place to the Belvedere has largely gone unchanged since the closure of the tramroad and represents the best preserved section of tramroad north of the River Ribble. It was graded for the passage of the tramroad and was simply re-surfaced when the tramplates were removed and Avenham Park created.

The route briefly parallels Avenham Walk, first laid out in 1696 as the town’s promenade and now lined with mature lime trees. 

The opening of the tramroad pre-dated the opening of the 26 acre Avenham Park in 1867 by 64 years. The double track ‘rail road’ would have undoubtedly been a sight in itself, juxtaposed between Avenham Walk, and Avenham Cottage and the six acre Avenham Garden, the precursor to the present day Avenham Park. 

Avenham Garden was laid out by Mr Charles Jackson during the 1830s immediately west of the tramroad, and contained a bath-house with hot and cold water, greenhouses, gardens and orchards, surrounded by cultivated fields and pasture land (Garlington, p3). 

A century after the tramroad closed, part of its former alignment between Overleigh House and below the top end of Avenham Colonnade was chosen as the preferred route of the proposed Preston Inner Ring-Road scheme in the 1960s. The tramroad would have been decked over by a four-lane 'southern Ringway' on concrete piers as it cut its way along the northern edge of Avenham Park. It was never built and only the northern section of the Ringway Inner Ring-Road Scheme between Wharf Street and Lune Street, and Church Street via North Road was completed, opening in 1967.

On the site of the incline’s stationary ‘Avenham Engine Shed’ demolished in 1869 stands the Italianate Belvedere shelter. The Belvedere was moved there in 1875 having been displaced by the 14th Earl of Derby statue in Miller Park. On 31 May 1873, it was reported in the Preston Guardian that stone from the engine shed which stood derelict for a decade was used to construct 'half dozen new flights' of steps in the new park (Barritt, p107).

The engine shed was the subject of a special committee to investigate Gregson’s alleged profiteering and favouritism as director of the company. Why was more expensive coal being supplied to the Avenham engine shed from a company which Gregson was a partner, was one question the committee had posed. Charges against Gregson were cleared by the committee which was formed mainly of his friends and associates, but he ‘did agree to stop trading on the canal for so long as he remained company secretary.’ (Philpotts, p43).

By all accounts, the tramroad and in particular the Avenham engine shed and incline was unpopular with its nearby residents; one ‘old inhabitant’ ‘wrote to the Preston Guardian suggesting that ‘the present abominable nuisance of clanking chains and unsightly smoking chimney ‘be got rid of, otherwise the park would be ‘deteriorated by the perpetuation of so foul a nuisance’’ (Barritt, p101). This is an interesting observation, given that the engine shed was designed to ‘consume its own smoke’ (Philpotts, p42) or by ‘the patent principle of burning the smoke’ (Barritt, p46). This feature appears to have been installed or at least suggested by Cartwright to placate Sir Henry Philip Hoghton who resided in Hoghton Tower and Walton Hall, the latter located just under a mile to south east in Walton Green on the banks of the River Darwen (Biddle, 1984, p68). Sir Henry Hoghton appeared to have misunderstood the reason for the Avenham and Penwortham engine sheds, believing at first they were for drawing water from the Ribble. In response, Gregson clarified in writing the purpose of the engine sheds (Barritt, p46).

Preston journalist Anthony Hewitson wrote in his book 'History of Preston (from A.D. 705 to 1883) in the county of Lancaster', 'The old engine-house, with cottage adjoining, remained up the former, with its large chimney, being a great eyesore-till about 1868.' (Hewitson, 1883, p198).

The 1 in 6, 51 ft high Avenham incline is retained as a path bordered by Pulhamite stone grottos installed in 1873 (Garlington, p5). 

Clues to the passing of the tramroad can be found hidden or in plain sight in Avenham Park, including several tramroad sleeper blocks incorporated into park retaining walls.

The nearby Harris Institute, which opened as the Preston Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge installed an early example of double glazing by its portico on opening in October 1850, ‘to cut out the sound of the stationary steam engine on Avenham Rise’ (Garlington, p13). Nevertheless by that point, traffic on the route would already be in decline by the mid-1800s, closing between Preston Basin and Bamber Bridge by 1862.

The Old Tram Bridge was rebuilt in 1935 as a concrete facsimile and its timber decking replaced with concrete in 1966. The nine span bridge has been closed to the public since February 2019 due to cracks found in its pre-stressed concrete beams. 

South of the bridge, the tree lined, 10 ft high, 3,599 ft long former tramroad embankment heads towards Carr Wood over the Ribble floodplain known as The Mains. 

In January 2023 it was announced that funds had been secured to have the bridge replaced (Place North West, Levelling Up Fund: North West secures £355m).

In October 2023 geotechnical trial boring commenced by the southwest side of the bridge to obtain samples of soil strata. Demolition of the bridge began on 20 August 2024 and the entire span was removed by the end of the same month.

The route to Walton Summit from here would have been entirely rural when the tramroad was initially built except where it passed through Bamber Bridge which was a small village by the early 1800s.

The embankment’s boundary is broader than necessary to accommodate the never built canal that was planned to cross the floodplain on a 40 ft high embankment (Barritt, p107). Had the canal embankment been built, it would have been a colossal feat of engineering far higher and broader than the tramroad embankment.

It remains a popular footpath, known as the ‘Old Tramroad’ although 'some early postcards refer to the Walk as Lover's Lane'. (Hayes, p51). The former tramroad is protected by lime trees planted in the Victorian era after the tramroad's closure which lean slightly to the east due to the prevailing wind. The embankment is flanked by a boundary of quickthorn hawthorn hedges planted by the original tramroad builders. The former tramroad now forms part of South Ribble’s ‘Central Parks’ network of borough-wide green spaces and is the start and end point of Sustrans 113 mile long Cycle Route 55 between Preston and Ironbridge in Shropshire.  

At Factory Lane the embankment of the East Lancashire Railway (ELR) almost merges with the alignment of the tramroad. The railway was built by the East Lancashire Railway Company, opening on 2 September 1850. This was due to animosity with the North Union Railway, so the ELR sought its own route into Preston via a triangular junction formed at Bamber Bridge, Lostock Hall and Todd Lane. 

The East Lancashire Railway paralleled the tramroad on a 52 brick arch viaduct which was later reinforced as an embankment in 1883. The railway line crossed the Ribble on a bridge of three cast iron arched spans with a cantilevered pedestrian walkway installed on the insistence of Preston Corporation, which had initially petitioned against the construction of another railway into the town. 

The railway won approval, but Preston Corporation ensured that its embankment, which now forms the boundary between Avenham and Miller Parks, was sensitively landscaped, with ornamental grottos and an elliptical, skewed Avenham Park ‘Ivy' Bridge taking the railway over Derby Walk into Preston. The railway closed between Preston, Todd Lane Junction and Bamber Bridge in 1972 and now forms a popular path alongside the ‘Old Tramroad’.

At the embankment’s southern end, the two ends of the original 1 in 4.5, 61 ft 4 in high Penwortham Inclined Plane can be seen which was 165 yards long and, like the Avenham incline, featured a horsepath alongside. This was a revision by Jessop and Rennie of Cartwright's original plan for a 1 in 9, 74 ft high incline at 232 yards long. It was worked by a newly patented twist link chain operated from an engine house in or near the present day Carr Wood Cottage which broke within the year (Barritt, p66). 

Between 1818 and 1820, a gentler incline, 370 yards long and offset to the west, was built through parts of Haslem Field, Bronny Field and Ryding Meadow. This incline could be worked by horses without the need for winding machinery at a gentler 1 in 18.5 gradient (Barritt, p66) and this is the route that exists today as a footpath. The original incline’s northern and southern alignment is visible but the central section was removed to accommodate homes within the Carrwood Park Residential Park.

The winding house at the top of the incline was demolished although there is speculation that the basement of the current Carrwood Cottage housed the horizontal winding drum. The steam engine that powered the winding machinery of the original incline was likely put to use elsewhere or sold. 

The building has been surveyed by the Lancashire County Council Historic Environment Team, 'The former winding engine house site is now occupied by my house, Carr Wood Cottage, at the top of the old incline (SD 54262727). I suppose that remains of the engine house will survive under the house and may form its foundations. I have been told that the house used to have a cellar, which was part of the engine of cobbled floors which probably relate to the engine house and tramway. The retaining wall between my house and the present path is built mainly from old tramway sleeper blocks, others are present around the house and gardens. Whilst clearing a pathway down to the public path at the eastern side of the house I have come across a series of stone steps, at the top of which is a cobbled floor, some 1ft below the present ground surface. The cobbled floor and steps noted above were visited by P D Iles. The cobbled surface exposed was c.1m by 1.5m, and c.30cm below the present ground surface. The top step of the series of 5 is more substantial than the lower ones, and has apparently been backed by brick and some stonework, and may have been the site of a wall, suggesting that the cobbled surface could represent an interior floor. The surface seems to extend under or be cut by the wall of the existing house.' (Lancashire County Council Historic Environment Team, Monument Full Report, PRN6696 - MLA6694).

Today Carwood Cottage marks the almost top of the incline. Had the canal been built, the 40 ft high embankment would have begun near the base of the incline north from here to the Ribble Aqueduct. In the opposite direction to the southeast, the canal would have featured 32 locks at various intervals to reach the height of Walton Summit basin.

From the base of Carr Wood Incline, four locks, the first of 32 would have been located here as the canal began its ascent towards Walton Summit.

The remainder of the tramroad between Carr Wood and Todd Lane North is preserved as a sealed footpath between housing estates, Hennel Lane and Walton Park.

Some sections of the hawthorn hedgerows lining the route may be the originals, planted to prevent livestock straying onto the tramroad.

Just northeast of where Todd Lane North crosses the tramroad embankment stands Lime Kiln Cottage, inscribed with ‘LANCASTER CANAL COMPANY 1805’ in a cement render beneath its chimney stack. The building was named 'Machine House' on the OS Six Inch series published 1848 and likely played a role with the tramroad, maintaining tramroad wagons in need of repair. There is speculation that the building was directly served by the tramroad by a spur or siding although whether the spur faced towards Preston or Bamber Bridge is unknown.

In her 1970 published booklet, Walton Summit and Branch Canal. The Last Phase, Winifred M. Gibbs describes the house which she visited in her youth, 'A few yards to the left on the north side of its junction with Todd Lane, and facing the Tram Road, stands a house called Lime Kiln Cottage. It has a very different appearance from what it had in its original state. The old simple workman-like cottage has been enlarged and transformed into a modern residence. In its early days it was a machine house serving the Tram Road, and its purpose was recognisable in the days before it was altered. This was well after the 1914-18 war, when I used to visit it. The two ground floors were flagged, and the one on the left of the front door bore signs of having been a workshop. The other downstairs room was fitted with an enormous kitchen range. There was no back door: the cottage backed on to an open field separated from it by a simple wire fence. I never visited the upstairs. The last tenants of this simple cottage were an old couple, Mr. and Mrs. Chapman. He acted as a most vigilant game-keeper for the de Hoghton Estate, and he could often be seen with his two dogs in the fields and in Cockshott and Dog Kennel Woods. Today all has changed. There is no illustration of the cottage as far as is known, and it remains only in the memory of the older inhabitants of the district.' (Gibbs, p9).

An electronic copy of this account can be obtained by email (see Further Reading below).

Between Todd Lane North and the A6 the tramroad is visible but inaccessible in fields with telltale lines of hawthorn hedgerow; it is the best preserved section of tramroad and demonstrates how much of the route would have looked between completion in the early 1800s and the 1960s.

This section is now privately owned, split between Lime Kiln Farm and Green Lane Farm (Leyland Historical Society, The Preston and Walton Summit Tramway). A stone wall along the east side of Todd Lane North by Lime Kiln Farm contains a few tramroad sleeper blocks.

The Grade II listed Lime Kiln Farm, previously named Hawksheads, stands south of the alignment on the east side of Todd Lane North. Closer to the alignment on the west side of Todd Lane North a former lime kiln or two lime kilns are marked on early maps. Gibbs mentions two lime kilns which were levelled by landowners during the Second World War prior to which one could enter the left hand kiln and look up to the sky. By 1969, the addition of a pavement alongside the west side of Todd Lane meant further evidence of the kilns was removed (Gibbs, p9-10). Like the Machine House, it is possible these kilns were also served by the tramroad with a spur but this is speculation.

Further to the southeast and marked on this 1848 map is Green Lane House, now demolished. It has been referred to as Green Lane Farm and a faint trace of the former garden boundary can be seen to the immediate north of houses in the northeast corner of Lyndale Avenue, off Todd Lane North. 

Gibbs makes mention of this lost farm with a possible tramroad connection although not in the physical sense of a spur, 'During the 1939-45 war the owner of Green Lane Farm thought fit to open up this section on his ground, and remove the stone sleepers. It still shows very clearly today that this was the route of the Tram Road, being at a slightly lower level than the adjoining field. When the sleepers were removed many of them were relaid to form a neat little paved garden behind the house of Green Lane Farm. Others have been put to various uses, and we find them in different places, often forming stile steps. Others, from elsewhere, were used to form part of the pavement over Todd Lane Railway Bridge. Recently, however, the pavement was relaid, and they were turned upside down, thus losing their identity.' (Gibbs, p10). She mentions '... there is a theory that Green Lane Farm providing stabling, as a building adjoining the farm house for a number of horses, the men using the loft above. This is quite feasible as the farm is only one field away from the Tram Road.' (Gibbs, p11).

This was likely one of a few 'relay stables' equipped with water and fodder for horses built at points along the route (Gregson, 2012, p46).

Further southeast, the alignment is cut by the A6 London Way which opened in 1984. Beyond, the former tramroad continues its south-easterly course to Walton Summit. A historic footpath between Todd Lane along the north side of houses along Lyndale Avenue to Green Lane and Brownedge Road, and Danesway and Duddle Lane crossed the tramroad here. Gibbs described this section of route in her 1970 booklet as 'in a recognisable depression across fields' (p9) and in 'a secluded area, much overgrown and very wet. The stone sleepers in situ were useful as stepping stones. The adjoining lengths of Tram Road were fenced off and full of brambles' (p10). 

Sadly this 'secluded area' of tramroad was severed for the construction of the A6 London Way dual carriageway. It was likely Green Lane Farm was demolished at a similar time in anticipation of the new road. A former resident remembers a distinct pile of overgrown red bricks on the site of the farm and construction of London Way in 1983. However, today the footpath is retained between Todd Lane North and Danesway and Cockshott Wood including two pedestrian crossings across London Way.

The route is partly lost through Cockshott Wood where a wooded embankment formed by the building of London Way, possibly to alleviate noise pollution, has buried part of the tramroad formation. The route is partly visible following a drainage ditch southeast, between London Way and the main north - south footpath through the wood.

The alignment then forms the boundaries of gardens on the west side of Severn Drive and Danesway in Brownedge and on satellite views during dry spells it can be traced beneath the playing field of Walton-le-Dale Primary School. Gibbs wrote of this stretch barred by a fence and a gate marked 'Private' and given over to the growing of rhubarb in strips where a number of 9 ft lengths of rail or tramplate had been found. Nine foot long sections had first been used in the Fishergate tunnel and were then used elsewhere on the tramroad (Gibbs, p11). 

There is no evidence of the route between the present day St. Mary's Avenue and Brownedge Road, although the boundary between 24 and 26 St. Mary's Avenue aligns with the eastern edge of the former tramroad route. 

In the past, the route could be traced through the BAXI heating works on the south side of Brownedge Road. Gibbs wrote of an 'inaccessible stretch still in rough condition, overgrown, its boundaries marked by high hedges. The best view of it is from the railway embankment or from a train running from Bamber Bridge to Todd Lane at Bamber Bridge Junction.' (Gibbs, p11). 

Since the closure of BAXI in 2006, the site has been replaced by a large residential development and no trace of the tramroad alignment remains.

Southeast of the former BAXI works, the railway crossed the tramroad over what is still known as Tram Road Bridge on Meanygate (previously Mainway Gate). The Blackburn and Preston railway opened on 1 June 1846 and the bridge underpass was realigned in 1850 on a north - south axis, so it is assumed the tramroad had to negotiate this new route with 12 years of operation left (the tramroad remained open likely between the east side of Station Road, Bamber Bridge and Walton Summit until 1879). The underpass is now used for pedestrians only. 

Southeast of the railway, the tramroad then forms a boundary between various generations of housing developments built since 1967 (Gibbs, p11) and can be briefly followed on a footpath linking Edward Street and Outram Way. The footpath marks the site of a railway bridge which connected Cuerden Mill (now Lancashire County Council's Cuerden Mill Depot) to Bamber Bridge railway station on a single track line called Dewhurst's Siding.

Before 1967, this section of tramroad between Meanygate and Station Road could be walked and was marked at the Meanygate end by upright wooden sleepers with a gap left for pedestrians, 'To preserve their right of way the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company used to close this part of the track on a certain day of each year.' (Gibbs, p12).

It is interesting to note here the origins of the word ‘tram’ and ‘tramroad’, ‘Contrary to numerous writings, Benjamin Outram had no connection with the tramroad at all, beyond being a partner in Butterley Ironworks [with William Jessop] where the rails were cast’ (Biddle, 1980, p25). Moreover, ‘Outram himself considered the words to be of Welsh origin’ (Baxter, p19). As Cartwright began planning the Lancaster Canal’s ‘waggonway’ or ‘iron road’, the ‘words ‘tramroad’ or ‘dramroad’ began to appear from 1790 (Baxter, p18). The form ‘dramroad’ is a Welsh form, the letter ‘t’ in Welsh being one of the mutable consonants that under certain conditions take the form of ‘d’ (Baxter, p19). The words ‘dram’ or ‘tram’ ‘were shown to be derived from Teutonic words for a beam of wood-such as a ‘traam’ in Old Scandinavian’ and ‘associated with transport ‘as the name of a quadrilateral frame on which baskets of coal were carried’, first probably by bearers, then dragged like a sledge, then put on wheels. Certainly the words ‘trammys’ and ‘tram’ were used for mining vehicles in the sixteenth century’ (Baxter, p19).

Confusion over Outram's involvement may have partly stemmed from the works of Clement Edwin Stretton who, in 1883, 'published a paper to mark the eightieth anniversary of the completion of the tramroad. He implied that a bitter dispute raged between Jessop and Outram as to whether edge rails or plate-rails should be used on the Lancaster Canal Tramroad, and that Outram's plate-rail was chosen, much to the annoyance of Jessop. He also suggested that the name Outram was the derivation of the Old Tram Road. Stretton's work has today been discredited and should not be taken as factual.' (Barritt, p26).

In the centre of Bamber Bridge, the tramroad crossed Station Road at an oblique angle and the road was at the time the main turnpike between Preston and Wigan. The tramroad passed between the McKenzie’s Arms Inn (demolished in 2013, and as of 2022 being replaced by housing) and a smithy on the east side of Station Road. The rear section of the commercial premises at 308 Station Road tapers and the Autosave garage at 321 Station Road is built at an oblique angle to accommodate the tramroad alignment.

The smithy, which gives its name to nearby street Smithy Street, would have provided maintenance facilities to tramroad wagons and horses. It became later known as the Tramway Garage and then Autosave garage after an extension to the premises in 1990. 

In its heyday, the junction of the road and tramroad would have been busy with deliveries of coal by tramroad and the final leg of the journey to nearby mills made by horse and cart. 'The 'South End' was particularly important in serving the Preston and Walton mills in reducing their fuel costs, and so offsetting the disadvantage of their non-coalfield location. The coal yards at Bamber Bridge were quite extensive, and their operator Mr McKenzie (whose inn alongside the line still survives under his name) was an important supplier of coal to Horrockses mills in Preston. Sales worth £137 were made in March 1803, rising to £314 in June, and £296 in September after completion of the link. In the years 1805-8 his sales to the firm averaged around £700 a year.' (Hunt, 1997, p112-113).

It was during these extension works that a dual section of tramroad was excavated some 7 ft 3 in beneath the surface by the Chorley Historical Society, ‘In some instances the cast iron plates were still in position, with cobblestones forming a walking surface brought up level with the top of the flange. A channel was formed in pebbles either side of the road bed to carry the rainwater run-off from the tramroad to the drainage system. Between the plates, two oak barrels were found sunk into the ground. It was thought these would have been filled with water to allow horses to refresh themselves whilst in harness.’ (Barritt, p109).

The South Ribble Museum possesses a more robust tramplate which is probably used here to withstand the heavy road traffic. The excavated section was later relaid albeit without the tramplates in Worden Park, Leyland. They provide a rare surviving example of the construction of the tramroad within an area busy with road traffic and provide an insight into the arrangement of the tramroad at Preston Basin. 

Once again, the Peak Forest Tramway, designed by Benjamin Outram, likely provided much of the technical knowledge to which William Cartwright relied upon. 'At road crossings Outram had specified that level crossing rails were to be double thickness. A flat "U" section approximately 3¾ inches between the flanges and weighing 90 lb. to the yard was used... The rails were sunk into the roadway so as to cause little obstruction as possible to road vehicles.' (Ripley, p11). 

The tramroad served coal yards on both the west and east sides of Station Road which supplied nearby mills and factories, keeping this section of the tramroad to Walton Summit open the longest until 1879. The coal yard on the west side of Station Road survives as a car repair garage (at 310 Station Road) with a cobbled surface and weighing machine and two stone gate piers.

Further southeast, a section of tramroad alignment lasted until the 1990s alongside a reservoir built for Bamber Bridge Mill but has since been consumed by industrial units; only the boundary is visible at the north end of Club Street. This area may have become a major canal junction had events taken a different course. A ‘grand canal’ between the River Ribble at Preston and the River Aire in Leeds had been proposed as early as 1764 (Froggatt) and a route for what would become the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was surveyed by John Longbotham in 1768. 

His line of the canal would have passed through Bamber Bridge on a southwest - northeast trajectory, following a route between Parbold, Eccleston, Leyland, Bamber Bridge, Houghton, Whalley (via an aqueduct), Colne and Skipton. The canal would have formed a cruciform shaped junction with the Lancaster Canal (prior to the decision to build a tramroad instead) around the area of Club Street, Bamber Bridge (see also Leyland Historical Society, How Leyland almost became a canal village). ‘The Lancashire Committee’ of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, favouring a route through Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn to Johnson’s Hillock, prevailed and an Act of Parliament was duly passed in 1790. A short section of the abortive route was built at Parbold, later used as a dry dock. 

The tramroad alignment is then cut by the M6, and the alignment survives as a hawthorn lined strip just south of the M6 and between British Car Auctions on Reedfield Place, and Thyssenkrupp Materials Ltd, Man Truck and Bus Ltd and BSRIA on Walton Summit Road. Further southeast the alignment is lost among the commercial warehouses of the Walton Summit Centre and is remembered by street names: Tramway Lane and Walton Summit Road.

The tramroad alignment re-emerges east of Gough Lane, and a number of interesting features of the tramroad were and are still evident here. The stone built Duke of Devonshire's Walton Summit Weighbridge House, approximately 30 ft in length by 10 ft in width, stood on the left-hand or north side of the alignment. It was demolished between January and October 1996 based on aerial images commissioned by road-building firm Tarmac for the construction of the M65 motorway and Tramway Lane underbridge (see below). The building would have contained the weighing mechanism which would have weighed each wagon to 'charge the correct tolls and to protect the plates from overloading.' (Barritt, p63). 

The weighbridge is not in its original location which was originally near Summit Farm, some 500 yards northwest of the basin. For reasons unknown it was moved to this location nearer Gough Lane. It could have been moved here to ensure the laden wagons were well clear of the incline while weighing took place which would have been a time-consuming process.

Photos of the building in the latter half of the 20th century show the Weighbridge House in good condition, and readers have commented that the building was used as an artist's studio during the 1960s. A Title Plan dated 8 April 1922 refers to the building as the 'Old Smithy'. The plan also shows the 'Cindered Road' between the Summit Cottages and the Old Tramroad. A detached dwelling called Walton House was built immediately behind the site of the Weighbridge House in the mid-2000s.

Further along from the site of the Weighbridge House and on the north side of the tramroad alignment lie Stockbar Cottage and 3 and 5 Summit Cottages. These were built for those working on the tramroad including the basin and Weighbridge House, and Stockbar Cottage contained stables for horses working the route. 

Summit Cottages and Stockbar Cottage are private residences. The latter building, which predates Summit Cottages, has been altered in the late 2000s to extend the building towards the tramroad alignment. The extension contains reclaimed tramroad blocks in the masonry.

On the site of Summit Farm, the builders of The Old Tramway development built in the mid-2000s have relaid a short section of stone block sleepers found during construction on both sides of the main entrance. 

Within the private garden of one property in The Old Tramway, a number of tramroad blocks have been displayed in a 'L' shape configuration to form a boundary.

Over the years, this area has yielded a number of tramroad blocks and the occasional tramplate, and many have found their way into private gardens and collections. A set of tramload sleeper blocks collected by one reader was reclaimed from the base of the former Walton Summit Incline, the area where the Old Tramway development now stands, and by the remaining section of tramroad between the M6 and Walton Summit Road north of British Car Auctions. Evident is the impressions made by the splayed ends of the tramplates transferring the weight of passing tramloads. The varying sizes of the tramroad blocks is curious, suggesting larger blocks were installed where pressure from passing tramloads was greatest, for example at the foot of the Walton Summit Incline.

Winifred M. Gibbs records discovering many repurposed tramroad blocks and tramplates along and near the route in her 1970 booklet, Walton Summit and Branch Canal. The Last Phase, an electronic copy of which can be obtained by email (see Further Reading below).

An archaeological investigation undertaken in 2004 for the laying of a United Utilities pipe found buried rails beneath hedges near Gough Lane (Tonks, p5); the same works cite an investigation carried out on behalf of the Central Lancashire Development Corporation in the 1970s which found remains of the plateway (Ibid) in this vicinity. 

Though heavily overgrown, remnants of the tramroad incline can be still discerned here: 'Site Number 5 NGR SD 5796 2469 A stone wall, c.1m in height, lining the north-eastern edge of a ditch. Aligned north-west/south-east along the southern edge of Tramway Lane, beyond the northwestern extent of the study area. Likely to be the remains of a revetment wall for raised bed of plateway road. Survives for a distance of c.78m, beyond which it is buried below the earthworks associated with the M65. Site Number 6 NGR SD 5796 2469. A ditch aligned north-west/south-east along the southern edge of Tramway Lane, beyond the north-western extent of the study area. Associated with adjacent revetment wall (Site 5), and is likely to represent the remains of the ditch which flanked the southern edge of the plateway. Site Number 7 NGR SD 5812 2462 A hedgeline which correlates closely to the edge of the plateway road within the central part of the study area, extending some 75.5m south-eastwards from Clayton Brook Road. Appears to be associated with a largely backfilled ditch (likely to be a continuation of Site 6), situated adjacent to the south. Both probably represent the southern boundary of the plateway road.'  (Lancashire County Council Historic Environment Team, Monument Full Report, PRN6696 - MLA6694).

The 1 in 10, 274 yard long tramroad incline to Walton Summit basin remains as a footpath from Clayton Brook Road although the base of the incline was cut by the nearby M61 link road which was widened to become the M65 motorway in the mid 1990s. 

Had the Lancaster Canal been built in its entirety, the Walton Summit tramroad incline would have instead been a grand staircase lock consisting of nine locks, one of the steepest flights in the country. Would the staircase locks have been named after Clayton Green? It would not have been necessary to build Walton Summit transhipment basin had the canal been fully realised.

Walton Summit is named after the transhipment basin where the inclined tramroad met the Lancaster Canal’s South End. Here, the canal split into a three-pronged, trident shaped basin and the tramroad split into ‘spurrings’, 'splice roads' or sidings to serve each of the three basins, complete by 1802. 

The interchange was originally designed to have four basins but due to financial constraints was built as three with the centre arm covered by a transhipment shed (Barritt, p52). 

Barritt describes the arrangement as, 'the main line of the tramroad ascended the inclined plane and ran into the central area of the canal basin. Near the foot of the incline a siding, referred to as a spurring, split off the Limestone Road towards the eastern arm of the basin and likewise a spurring from the Coal Road served the western arm. The spurrings were of an easier gradient than the main line and could be worked by horses.' (Barritt, p64).

The following section is interspersed with photographs from Hugh Potter taken in 1967 and 1968. Knowing that the Lancaster Canal 'Walton Summit' Branch was about to be filled in, on 5 May 1968 he and four other teenagers paddled a canoe from Johnson's Hillock Lock to the Summit Basin (the reverse of this route description). His account: 'Last Boat to Walton Summit' published in Waterways World in March 2008 can be obtained by emailing restoreprestonbasin@gmail.com.

Within a decade after the basin's opening, modifications were made to ease the operation of the basin and incline, 'Some time before 1813 it was decided to abandon the incline plane and modify the western spurring to provide access to the central area of the basin.' (Ibid).

It is believed that despite the construction of the inclined plane facing Bamber Bridge, horses could pull wagons of coal and limestone to and from the basin along the 1 in 13 gradient without the assistance of a winding engine which may never have been used but planned (Barritt, p65). With the passage of 102,000 tons of cargo between Wigan and Lancaster recorded in 1804, some claim it made ‘Whittle and t’Summit two of the busiest places in Lancashire.’ (Hodkinson, p4).

Walton Summit was filled in from 1968 and the site now serves as a small park and an uneven playing field at Clayton Brook, a housing development created as part of the Central Lancashire New Town. The basin is likely some feet beneath the ground having been 'filled in' when the M61 motorway truncated the basin (Tonks, p6). 

'A watching brief was undertaken by Oxford Archaeology North between November 2003 and January 2004 at Clayton Brook, near Walton Summit, Lancashire (centred on NGR SD 5826 2456). The work was commissioned by United Utilities following the proposed excavation of a new pipeline trench.' The report summarised:

'A recent topographic survey suggested that the ground level had altered significantly since the canal’s closure, having been raised by some eight metres in places, owing to the redeposition of material excavated during the construction of the nearby M61 in 1968/9. The watching brief was carried out to establish whether any archaeology had survived beneath this modern overburden. During the watching brief the groundworks demonstrated that the depth of the overburden in the area of the warehouse was greater than the impact depth of the pipe-trench and, therefore, any surviving archaeology would not be disturbed by the works. It remains unknown how much of the canal basin and warehouse survive beneath the modern overburden. However, in the area of the inclined plane and tram plateway, a sandstone surface comprising sandstone blocks, thought to be bedding sleepers for the tramway, were encountered between 1.35m and 0.4m below the current ground surface. This is clear evidence for the survival of much of the feature and suggests that it remains, probably mostly intact, beneath a much lesser depth of modern overburden. The watching brief demonstrated the survival and existence of significant archaeology at Clayton Brook and enhanced our understanding of the site as a whole. In addition, it was considered that the works had only minor impact on the archaeological resource, much of which is thought to remain undisturbed and in situ.' (Lancashire County Council Historic Environment Team, Monument Full Report, PRN6696 - MLA6694)

Apparently due to the puddling of the basin with clay, the area to this day does not drain very well and the field remains damp long after the most recent rainfall (Leyland Historical Society, The Preston and Walton Summit Railway). The basin stood among fields for over 150 years until the construction of the M6 and M61 motorways from the 1960s, and the Central Lancashire New Town from the 1970s. 

Local historian David Hunt noted that, 'Up to the 1960s most of the line could still be easily followed, and many of the stone sleepers were still in place.' However, 'The failure to preserve the line as a public footpath and heritage trail is much to be regretted.' (Hunt, 1997, p114).

Local historian David Hunt noted that, 'Up to the 1960s most of the line could still be easily followed, and many of the stone sleepers were still in place.' However, 'The failure to preserve the line as a public footpath and heritage trail is much to be regretted.' (Hunt, 1997, p114).

Lancaster Canal’s South End or Walton Summit Branch was opened between Johnson’s Hillock, its junction with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and Walton Summit on 1 June 1803, meandering lock free some 298 ft above sea level. The Lancaster Canal ‘South End’ originally began in Bark Hill, near Wigan but was later leased by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1864. The section between Rip Row and Johnson’s Hillock remained open for the longest, bringing coal to Whittle-le-Woods and stone from the quarries at Whittle Hills, and serving the St Helen’s Chemical works and Lostock Valley Brick and Tile works until the late 1940s remaining in water until the 1960s. 

The construction of the M61 motorway from 1968 cut through the route of the 'South End' in three places. The only surviving sections of canal in water are a short section north from Johnson’s Hillock to Town Lane and a section restored in 1993 at Whittle Hills cutting between Moss Bridge and the west Whittle Hills tunnel. Neither sections are navigable.

Successive waves of housing development, beginning with the Central Lancashire New Town developments that began in 1970 have encroached upon the alignment. Nevertheless traces of the canal can be seen through open fields, and as open spaces and footpaths through housing estates. Carr Barn Brow traces the route of the canal as it leaves Walton Summit eastwards. The alignment is soon cut by the M61 motorway near its junction with the M65 at Clayton Brook Interchange.

Summit Bridge is the first bridge spanning the canal and now stands in isolation in fields, and forms part of a public footpath from Clayton Brook to Pippin Street. 'The bridge is unique being a 'changeline' bridge with a towpath on... both sides so that boats could easily be hauled to the correct unloading bay/arm of the terminus at Walton Summit. On the return trip out of the basin heading south the boat horse could go over the bridge without having to be unhitched.' (Laws, p17).

Summit Bridge is Grade II listed but is in a poor state of repair with dislodged parapet stones, although there is pressure to have the bridge repaired (Ibid). 

This is a stark contrast to the state of the bridge described in Hugh Potter's account when he and four other teenagers canoed along the canal on 5 May, 1968. They described Summit Bridge 10 as 'very attractive and well preserved' (Potter, p98). 

The canal alignment beneath is marked by a slight depression and alder trees grow in waterlogged sections, a sign that the canal bed is still performing its task of holding water.

Summit Bridge is a typical example of a hump-backed, ‘accommodation bridge’ designed by Rennie with an elliptical arch, ‘concave in plan and a pronounced batter in section’ featuring chamfered arches to the side of and above the towpath; ‘evidence that Rennie took care to minimise inconveniences to horses and men on the towpath’ (Champness, p42 - 43). Furthermore, 'The standard bridges on the Lancaster Canal were designed by John Rennie with the walls curved inwards in plan between buttress piers at each end and battered to give added strength and [had] a protecting string course below the parapet.' (Lancashire County Council Historic Environment Team, Monument Full Report, PRN10337 - MLA10337).

The voussoirs and keystone of all bridges were white-washed to aid navigation in low light.

The canal then turns through a sharp south-westerly direction. White Bridge, the next bridge south has been removed although some stonework remains. Ramped earth marks its position and a utility pipe that now makes an unnecessary ‘bridging’ of the former canal beneath. The canal is in a shallow depression and dislodged stone washwall blocks are visible in the undergrowth. 

Both Summit Bridge and the former White Bridge can be accessed via a footpath which can be reached from a very well hidden pedestrian underpass under the M61 almost opposite the junction of Long Acre and Clayton Brook Road. 

The canal alignment swings southwest, cut again by the M61 and then heads south through Clayton Green and Whittle-le-Woods. 

South of the M61, the alignment can be traced in trees on either side of Westwood Road although is inaccessible to the public. Taking a slight detour, a transplanted Lancaster Canal cast-iron milepost stands at the entrance to the Lord Nelson public house on Sandy Lane, west of the site of Radburn Basin.

The canal alignment can then be traced on foot from the north end of Ashdown Drive where a small open, grassy space marks the spot of Radburn canal bridge, wharf and coal basin. 

Radburn Basin was the site 'for about 5 years from 1810 goods were transhipped by road to Blackburn for onward transportation on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.' (Laws, p17). 

South of the former Radburn Basin, a sizeable length of alignment forms part of an open space off Osborne Drive, paralleling Chorley Old Road. Dewhurst Bridge, a short wooden bridge, once crossed the canal south of Radburn Basin in an area known as Little Radburn and its site forms the northern end this linear green stretch.

In most instances, these bridges replaced an established right of way or a farmer’s track; 'The wooden swing bridges on the canal were also built by Rennie, swinging on ball bearings on a circular race between the stone foundation and the timber of the bridge.' (Lancashire County Council Historic Environment Team, Monument Full Report, PRN10337 - MLA10337). In other instances the canal offered to build cheaper, wooden swivel bridges but many farmers resisted ensuring stone bridges were built instead (Philpotts, p25). 

Bordering Osborne Drive to the south lies Whittle Spinney Wood where a well preserved canal-served stone limekiln can be found. It features an intact draw-hole and stoke-hole, beyond which the furnace would have been lit to burn the limestone fed in from the top through the shaft. Limekilns like this were a feature of the both ends of the canal and would have been built in then rural areas given the noxious gases they produced.

Further south, the canal passed St. Helen’s Chemical Works to the east of the Old Dog Inn and a small graving dock.

The canal then turned southwest under the Old Dog Inn bridge and formed the Duke of York wharf at Rip Row, now a footpath, community garden and open space.

The former wharf was filled in around 1968, landscaped in 1989 and incorporates mill stones found during excavation of the former canal alignment. Millstones, quarried for centuries at Whittle Hills, were transported from the nearby wharf to the Port of Liverpool where they were exported, many to Ireland (Barritt, p3). Coal was brought north to the wharf and served two weaving mills, most likely Swansey Mill and Kem Mills. 

The adjacent Duke of York Inn closed around 2008 and was demolished in 2017 for the building of a small Co-op supermarket. There is some speculation this inn was originally called the 'Packet Boat' given an entry in an 1824 directory (Langford). 

The present day view of the site of the Duke of York Inn and Whittle Hills is an inverse one, with the hills quarried and now replaced with a deep, flooded lake.

Immediately east of the Duke of York wharf, a 550 ft section of the canal between the Grade II listed Moss Bridge and the western portal of the west Whittle Hills tunnel is in shallow water, replenished by natural run-off water.

The restored Lancaster Canal forms the spine of a nature and heritage trail initiated by a group of volunteers in 1991, restored and opened in May 1993 with a grant from Lancashire County Council. 

The original Whittle Hills tunnel was cut between 1799 and 1801 and was 259 yards long. The tunnel collapsed twice in 1827 and again in 1836, consequently the centre section was removed in 1837. This formed a 200 yard cutting and two tunnels, the ‘long’ West tunnel allowing access from Chorley Old Road to the quarries north of the canal, and a ‘short’ East tunnel which replaced the severed direct route from Whittle-le-Woods and Brindle (Hodkinson, p36). 

The opening of the Lancaster Canal to Walton Summit and the Whittle Tunnel was a cause of great excitement and curiosity. In June 1803, The Blackburn Mail recorded:

'On the first instant, a boat laden with coal was navigated on the Lancaster Canal thro’ the tunnel at Whittle Hills, and her cargo was discharged into waggons at the termination of the canal at Walton. Twenty seven waggons were laden, each containing about one ton, and were drawn by one horse, a mile and a half, along the rail road, to the works of Messrs Claytons at Bamber Bridge. The waggons extended one hundred yards in length along the rail road, Geo. Clayton of Lostock Hall Esq., rode upon the first waggon and the tops of the others were fully occupied...

...The intention of navigating a boat through the Tunnel, upon this day, was not generally known; it was quickly circulated; old and young left their habitations and emoluments to witness a sight so novel, and before the boat reached her discharging place, she was completely crowded with passengers, who anxiously rushed into her at every bridge. The workmen were regaled with ail, at Bamber Bridge; and among the toasts of the party were given, 'the glorious First of June', 'the Memory of Lord Howe', and 'The health of the surviving heroes of that memorable day'' (Barritt, p49).

The portal is described as, 'West portal of Whittle Hills tunnel of former Lancaster canal. 1801-1803; Engineer, John Rennie. Rusticated rock-faced sandstone. Semicircular arch with rusticated voussoirs and triple keystone, a roll-moulded band immediately above this carried across battered piers to left and right; a large rectangular recess (on panel) in the centre of the retaining wall above this band (as if for an inscription, but faced with ashlar); parapet with rounded top. To each side, a curved sloped abutment of similar masonry but with square copings.' (British Listed Buildings, 2023).

There is no evidence that the recess panel ever contained any embellishments or wording. The Whittle Hills tunnel portals are similar in design to the Lancaster Canal's 377 yard long Hincaster Tunnel, although the latter was built without a towpath to reduce costs. A recess panel adorns each end of the Hincaster Tunnel but was also left blank.

The tunnels accommodated a towpath too narrow for horses who had to be walked over the tunnels; barges were 'man-hauled' through (Hodkinson, p60).

The adjacent Whittle Hills quarry used the canal extensively to transport millstone but also building stone, millstones, paving flags and setts, slopstones, door and window lintels (Hodkinson, p59).

Roman coins found during the excavation of the centre section suggest the area had been quarried since that era.

The central cutting is now heavily overgrown and neither tunnel can be publicly accessed, although it is possible to walk to the entrance of the western portal of the west tunnel. This portal and the eastern portal of the east tunnel are Grade II listed. 

A dedicated area of the quarry was known as ‘The Company Hole’ for use by the Lancaster Canal Company to quarry stone for tunnels, cuttings, bridges and wharves for the ‘Whittle - Clayton - Brindle’ length of the canal (Hodkinson, p60).

The busiest period of the quarry was likely the second half of the 19th century and up to the First World War (Ibid) which would likely be mirrored in canal traffic. 

There was little reason for commercial traffic to ply the canal between Walton Summit and Whittle-le-Woods after the closure of the tramroad between Bamber Bridge and Walton Summit basin in 1879. 

Southeast of Tunnel End, the alignment is marked by tell-tale reed filled section before crossing the River Lostock on an embankment and a short tunnel designed by John Rennie using Whittle stone.

It is then cut again by the M61 motorway. Both ends of the tunnel can be viewed from the north via Hill Top Lane and North Bank Farm, and the south via footpaths leading from Hill Top Farm and Martin House Farm on Carrwood Lane.

The alignment of the canal from North Bank Farm to the M61 survives as a field which forms part of a footpath between Hill Top Lane and the northern portal of the River Lostock tunnel.

From the northern portal, the footpath leads under the M61 in a pedestrian subway, and the canal alignment can be traced again heading south-east. 

The infilled Lancaster Canal is given away by a tell-tale line of trees west of Wilson Nook Farm and the footpath parallels it for a short section to the farm above the canal alignment on a ridge. 

Johnson’s Hillock Bridge (or Navigation Bridge) was built between 1800 and 1803. The bridge was demolished in 1971 but the canal beneath was dammed in 1968 in anticipation of the construction of the M61 motorway. Town Lane was realigned slightly to the north.

It now forms the terminus of the canal at Town Lane. A private house just west of here was once the Navigation Inn. 

South of here, the canal is in water for approximately 400 yards albeit overgrown. The canal then forms its junction with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Johnson’s Hillock which features seven, staircase locks.

The locks represent the western end of the final ‘missing link’ of Leeds and Liverpool Canal between Johnson’s Hillock and Blackburn completed by 1816 after taking 14 years to construct. 

An initial plan by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal would have bypassed the Lancaster Canal by building a parallel canal between Heapey just east of Johnson’s Hillock to Aspull near Wigan. A further arm projected to Red Moss, south of Horwich to join with a proposed extension from the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal also came to nothing. Instead ‘common sense prevailed’ when the junction was made at Johnson’s Hillock and an agreement was struck in 1810 to allow the Leeds and Liverpool to use the Lancaster Canal from here to Bark Hill and Aspull near Wigan. From there access could be made to Manchester via the Leeds and Liverpool - Leigh Branch and then on to the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal. 

The Leeds and Liverpool became the longest continuous canal in the country at 127 ¼ miles long, taking 46 years to complete. It later leased the Lancaster Canal’s ‘South End’ between Aspull and Walton Summit in 1864.

Today the only official vestige of the former route at Johnson’s Hillock junction is a sign prohibiting navigation on the ‘Walton Summit Branch’ canal. 

In neighbouring fields to the immediate west of the Walton Summit branch, seasonal plants ring ghostly, morassy depressions of abandoned barges, a perennial reminder of the canal’s past.