The Lancaster-Kendal Canal

As far back as 1770, the merchants of Lancaster saw advantages in linking the proposed Leeds & Liverpool Canal and Manchester to the south, to Kendal in the north, via their prosperous town and port. As ships grew in size, the River Lune became unnavigable and a canal would keep trade routes open.   A route for the canal was first surveyed in 1772 but it was another twenty years before a route, surveyed by engineer John Rennie, was finalised.
The Act of Parliament ‘for making and maintaining a navigable Canal from Kirkby Kendal in the county of Westmorland to West Houghton’ was obtained in 1792.

Construction started immediately under chief engineer John Rennie and the Preston to Tewitfield section opened in November 1797. The company was dogged by financial problems from the start and by 1800, only the section from Wigan to Walton Summit, five miles south of Preston, and the section northwards from Preston to Tewitfield had been completed. A temporary tramway linkedthe two sections. Eventually, in 1819 the northernmost section was opened, extending the canal from Tewitfield through to Kendal and by 1826 a branch to Glasson Dock had been built. The sections between Preston and Walton Summit, were never linked by water and the tramway was to be permanent meaning that the sought after link to the Bridgwater Network was never realised.

When the Northern Reaches of the canal were being planned, the powerful Wakefield Family were successful in their bid to have the route of the canal diverted so it went through Sedgwick, where they owned Gunpowder Works. This required the construction of the 378-yard long Hincaster Tunnel. The new route was agreed in 1807 and construction of the Northern Reaches commenced in 1813, under company engineer Thomas Fletcher with the section north of Hincaster (including Sedgwick) being overseen by William Crosley Jr who built Sedgwick Hill Bridge and Sedgwick Aqueduct. 

​Sedgwick aqueduct still stands in the centre of Sedgwick and is a unusual example of a skewed bridge  - most canal bridges were at right angles to the road that they cross, to simplify design and minimise materials used. A skew bridge avoids the need to put a bend in the road.

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​In its 125-year working life span, the canal brought prosperity to Kendal and was known as the Black and White Canal because it carried coal north from the Lancashire Coalfields, and limestone south from Kendal.

​The 1792 Act of Parliament that permitted the construction of the canal also established the rates for Tonnage (cost of carriage on the canal) and Wharfage (cost of storage on the wharf). The canal finally reached Kendal in 1819 with an opening ceremony being held on the 18th June.

There were milestones on the canal, but unlike those on the roads, they are not there to tell a traveller the distance to their destination, rather they are there to tell the traveller how far they have travelled from their starting place. Their purpose was to protect the income of the Canal Company, not to aid the carrier. Consequently, when walking along the towpath and approaching a milestone, you will see the distance from the town you are walking away from, not the distance to the town you are walking towards.

 ​A canal with as few locks as the Lancaster Canal was ideally suited for swift and efficient passenger transport. The journey from Preston to Kendal originally took 10 hours (much shorter than the equivalent journey by stagecoach) but in the 1830s to counter competition from the newly built railway, three new ‘swift’ boats were introduced, Waterwitch, Swiftsure and Swallow cutting the journey to 8 hours with a further hour saved when passengers disembarked at Tewitfield locks and navigated the steps to take a second boat for the remainder of the journey.

The comfort and speed of the Packet service kept the canal viable for longer, despite the decline in the movement of goods. However, under financial pressure, in 1864 The Lancaster Canal Company leased the northern section to a railway company in for £12,665.87 per year and a year later they sold it to them. The railway company kept the canal open because they found it a good way to bring water south to Preston - the railway also bypassed the Kendal Gas Works located at Canal Head, so the canal was still useful to bring it with coal from Preston. ​

The canal suffered from many leaks caused by limestone fissures in the bed and its days were numbered..........

By 1939, the canal was owned by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, who obtained an Act to close the first half mile section at Kendal. In 1941-42 the by then unused section north of Kendal Gas Works was closed because of leakage. The owners attempted to close the whole canal in 1944, when the transport of coal to Kendal was transferred to road, but opposition resulted in a stay of execution of just three years. The canal carried its final commercial traffic in 1947.

In 1955, a further Act of Parliament authorised the closure of the canal and the canal was dewatered from Stainton nothwards because of excessive leakage, and the last 2 miles in Kendal were filled in.  When the M6 motorway was constructed, the canal was culverted in three places and later the A590 severed the route at Sedgwick.
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In the 1960s, the dewatered Sedgwick section became used as a rubbish dump by the district Council before it was purchased in 1980 by the Parish Council who restored it to the wildlife area it is today.  

The Lancaster Canal Trust have recreated what it would have been like to ride along the canal in its heyday and includes several recreations of what the sections around the area would have looked like
​click here for the virtual tour