Abandoned Derelict Canal & Tramway: Explore the Story of The Lancaster Canal by Air & Ground 

Thanks for that George!!! We’re glad you enjoyed it. As for the TV slot, we won’t hold our breath waiting for the phone call 🤣 Thanks again 😎😎

Thanks for that 👍

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it 👍 We are hoping this video gets some positive feedback and LIKES and we can justify making the trip up to the other end…it would be great to see both ends properly. Fingers crossed 🤞

Thanks Ann. We’re glad you enjoyed it! Please give it a LIKE/Thumbs Up if you haven’t already? There’s more stuff coming soon 👍

Thanks for that 👍

Thanks for that - the old history pictures are a definite hit with watchers 👍 Glad you enjoyed the video. 💃🕺🏽

Thanks Mark we appreciate that 👍 We’ll keep plugging away. Hope your wheel barrows worth of heating timber and getting fewer and fewer now? 💃🕺🏽

Wow - we can’t argue with that Barry. 👍 Thanks for that 🕺🏽💃

Thanks you two, hope you are well and thanks for appreciating the time and effort that goes into these 👍

Thanks Geoff. It’s a privilege for sure!!

Thanks for that 👍👍 We’ve realised ourselves that there is so much stuff that you miss in the hustle and bustle of day to day life! If you work in Preston you might find the next one doubly interesting 👍👍

Thanks for that, much appreciated 😎

Thanks John 👍👍

Thanks David, those comments are appreciated. It’s great when you spot things like the wonky headstones and then unearth an image that shows them 100 years earlier, it’s like hitting gold 🤣🤣

Thanks for that 👍 Personally we don’t see ourselves as competition for anyone, we don’t watch anyone else’s stuff before we go anywhere because we don’t want to spoil the surprise of what we might see for ourselves! We just hope that our ‘turn the camera on and see what happens’ style is enjoyable for people and hopefully we can enjoy the surprise of what we see too. Regards the Chorley end of the canal we were disappointed there wasn’t more canal. We turned the camera on and practically no sooner we ran out of water 🤣🤣 Nevertheless we found the whole thing fascinating and to get to stand where once there was water 100 years earlier was amazing. We enjoyed this one!!!

The coal was pulled by horses to the end of the wooden bridge ,( old Tram Bridge) then a steam engine based at the top of an incline would pull the carts up to the top, horses would then pull the carts all the way to the canal for loading

Good episode from Martin Zero this week too, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-joQQAolKJ7E.html @@ExploreTheUK1

Thanks for that 👍 We’re glad you enjoyed it!!

How time flies hey? Top work 👍

Thanks Karen, we love it 💃🕺🏽

Thanks for that you three, we’re glad you enjoyed the video!!! The feedback on the old and now pictures is useful so we’ll try and keep those as a feature as appropriate. Sue just said to me “Seeeeeeeeeeee” regards your yarn comment 🤣🤣 See you on the next one!!

@@ExploreTheUK1 It really is great when you can show a now and then perspective.

Thanks K, will take a look when we get a second. You can always count on My Angel to just deliver a corker in the middle of ‘life’…totally not a fish out of water at all 🤣🤣

Oh - thanks for that (on both counts), we’re glad you enjoyed it! E & S

Thanks for that. Is that where all the cars are coming from in our “Extras” video? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QxN92D-xoFY.htmlsi=1LX4sZjDV6WHj-ao

Thanks for that Kev 👍 The hat is a bought one sadly rather than one of Sue’s Wooly Wonders (she hates it when I call them that 🤣🤣). Hopefully this video will continue to get enough Thumbs Up/Likes and we’ll get ourselves over to Kendal because it would be great to explore the other side 💃🕺🏽 If you’re going over to the land slip we’d certainly be interested to see what you can capture 👍👍

@ExploreTheUK1 will see if I can video short clips and few pictures but I'm sure Gmail you can send larger files than 25mb so I will find out if it uploads to Google drive and sends you a link. Kev

@@collectingmodernclassiccar9771 unless you can produce any evidence that can get LCC, Wikipedia and geograph to change their descriptions then the reports give the car park tunnel as the tramway tunnel remain as the description.

Update on the route from the River / Avenham Park towards the basin coming this week. It will be posted on the Community page. Looks like the tramway took a direct route from Garden Street to the basin under Fishergate which is probably where the reference to the Fishergate car park comes from? It looks like the tram road didn’t follow the car park route but took a more direct route. Also a bit more footage from around the Fylde Road end coming. Keep your eyes peeled on the community page! 👍

@@ExploreTheUK1 if you look at the 1890 OS map, the rail sidings to the city side of the station, there is noted a ‘Office’ on the map, directly north of the office is the entrance to the Tram Road Tunnel under Fishergate. Also note towards the town Theatre St, this is clearly noted also that on the 1840 OS map Referring to the 1840 map moving back to the rail station is clearly marked the same tunnel that accepts the tram road after is curving routing from its Ribble Bridge to this tunnelling It will be noted that on the 1840 Corporation Street is not built neither is the road access down to the tunnel from Corporation St. The only landmarks that one can say to be constant are Garden St, where the tram road curves towards the tunnel and of course Theatre St, it appears from the said maps the route of the tram road runs to the town side of the current large car park. I am of the opinion that these landmarks locate the position of the said tunnel. To say that some redevelopment has occurred to the area since the opening of the canal to the present day is an understatement. Only Theatre St., Garden St and the tram road abutment wall are easily accessible today. The ground levels may also have risen and the referred to tunnel may also have been heightened after the Corporation St access road was built but I am sure the alinement is as shown on the 1840 map.

@@JohnSmith-bx8zbHi John, we have to admit your level of detail is way beyond the level we try and portray in our videos but it’s great you have delved into it and understand it so well, and isn’t it fantastic that due to the power of the internet documents from so long back are readily available to review and try and interpret (acknowledging that before technology some of the detail was down to interpretation)!!! We’ve done a little video that funnily enough starts at Garden Street. It’s made and ready to go so we’ll probably release it this week or early next. It’s interesting to see how the tram road route extended but again who really knows what happened 100+ years ago? Hope you enjoy it anyway.

@@ExploreTheUK1 looking forward to it coming on the channel 👍👍 Nevertheless I really appreciated the video, nice to see Preston on RU-vid. Sadly the Lancaster canal and how to access it from the main network is not covered by many boaters as few venture northwards. Talking of connections to the main network one proposed scheme was from Parbold across the SW Lancs Plane to the Ribble picking up canal from Leeds around Barnolswick which would require the Ribble being becoming a navigation. Such a plan would have linked Kendal to Liverpool and of course Leeds. Rather interesting prospect as much of the route to Liverpool would be, in relative terms, lock free. Looking at proposed but un completed canal projects of these Islands is rather interesting.

Thanks for that 👍

Thanks Sandra. Fingers crossed the new channel works out 🤞👍

Thanks for that. With any luck we’ll make it over to Kendal and do a video on the northern end, fingers crossed 👍👍 Hope you enjoy the next one too.

Glad you enjoy this sort of stuff - it’s really interesting doing the research about the infrastructure and the people from ‘back in the day’… We could send the drone through places that we can’t get too although the thought of losing it isn’t very good - it cost a small fortune!! 🤣

That’s fascinating Mark - thanks for mentioning it. We might need to take a look!! That’s some serious hedging at 200 years old!!

Hi Mark, thanks for mentioning this as I am trying to build a portfolio of anything that is left of this amazing example of Preston's past. Would it be possible to give a more detailed description so I can pay a visit.

Turn onto Walton Summit Road, British Car Auctions will be on your left. Pass BCA and keep looking to your left. Between BCA and whatever the warehouse is next door to it, you will see a line of white concrete barriers on the ground, blocking the entrance to what just looks like overgrown scrub between the two warehouses. It is the Tramroad. If you go down it, as I have, it is slightly elevated and the hedges are intact on each side. There were still tramroad sleeper stones to be seen when I explored it 15 years ago. These are now in my garden. ​@@scoobmonty

Great to see Mark reply - thanks Mark 👍 I wasn’t going to reply until you’d had chance because this was your find but I was down there today filming with the drone because I couldn’t just leave it. I’ll edit the footage shortly and share the link probably on our community page on here. I’ll add the what3words markers. Ps I also found the other bit on the other side of the motorway, so I filmed that too!! 👍

It’s a shame to see it unused but more so to see things that have subsequently been built over.

Thanks for that 👍 We appreciate the kind words 😎

Thanks Dave. We subsequently found a bit of tramroad around Garden Street which showed us the most accurate line it took towards the basin. We only found that out subsequently though so we popped it into an “extras” video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QxN92D-xoFY.htmlsi=NnVlp7260qeH0SaJ We are considering filming what can be seen in the car park tunnel but I guess there isn’t all that much is there? Ps can you walk into the car park tunnel or is it car only?

@@ExploreTheUK1 No problem! I am going into town later, so i will have a look at the tunnel and let you know. From memory it's car only, though. What is also interesting is following the route that the canal took on the other side of the basin, to where it terminates today at Ashton Basin. You can still see so remnants if you know where to look.

Thanks for that - appreciated. We found some of those bits we think in the Extras video. The only bit we think missing is the bit from the Painter and Decorators shop through to the Citroen garage where effectively it would have joined the existing canal. Looks like that bit might be private land but you can certainly see the line the canal took with the trees that have grown etc. 👍

@@ExploreTheUK1 Once it had gone under Fylde Road and behind Ace Decor there must have been locks, as it was raised to run behind the buildings, then crossed Aqueduct Street where the entrance to the Citroen garage's parking is now. The aqueduct effectively made Aqueduct street very narrow at that point, as it took the road down to a single lane. Loved the Miley Tunnel video, by the way. I walked through with a couple of mates about 25 years ago; but I was under the impression that it had been closed off at the Skeffington Road end.

You’re right, there is a substantial level difference isn’t there? Wonder what can be found out about the old locks?

Thanks Yvonne, what lovely feedback 👍 and comments. We hope you keep enjoying the videos 💃🕺🏽

🤣🤣 welcome to our world! It’s not for everyone but we are who we are, we aren’t going to change but hopefully people enjoy us being us 👍👍 It’s great to have you along for our journey Sara! 😍

Apparently, they started infilling the basin area around the 1930s to make for coal sidings and a car dealership. The Dutton Forshaw building was demolished in the 1980s.

I do remember being told that the cost to demolish Dutton forshaw was too high and that is why they pulled down the corn exchange to build the new road. I'm not sure how true that was as a few years later Dutton forshaw was gone

Oh really. Wonder why they though the car dealership would be so expensive to tear down??

@@ExploreTheUK1 it was madness we lost both buildings in the end

@@nicklowe536 and some people refer to that as ‘progress’ 😬

Thanks for that John! Yes, that’s the same canal that led down to the basin in Preston. It sounds like something we would love to capture and film!! Your photography sounds superb and that subject matter is something that we find fascinating - would love to see some… Cheers Elliott

Thanks for that 👍 The feedback has been superb so we hope people enjoy what the videos! It’s an interesting idea stitching all the extras in after. To be honest we don’t really do ‘extras’ normally but this subject matter has piqued our interest so we’ve gone ‘sod it, let’s go back again’ and get the extra stuff. 🤣

Thanks Carol 👍

Hi there - Sue was so excited to see your message because she knows your channel and watches - small world hey?! Hope you enjoy our journeys on both channels 👍💃🕺🏽

Hi Gary - certainly this end (the southern portion) can’t be joined up, and looking at where it terminates it wouldn’t even be worth the hassle. Whether the same can be said for the northern section at Kendal remains to be seen - we are hoping the channel views will grow and we can get ourselves up to the Lancaster to Kendal section and film that!! Cheers

Hopefully the ‘extra footage’ video will help with some of that?

@@ExploreTheUK1 Thanks for the extra footage, but I'd already found these in the past . I'm hoping that there is more to find between That last filled in bridge and acuduct st.

Thanks Andy and a MASSIVE THANK YOU for the coffees that we have just seen you have bought us - we REALLY APPRECIATE IT !!!!!!

Hi Ron - thanks for that, we're glad you enjoyed it. Yes, we're down to around 2,000 miles now so as you say plenty of it is buried. Thankfully that makes discovering some of the abandoned stuff all the more exciting and intriguing!!

She’s a riot. We love Heidi!!

Hi Ash - it took us a while to get around to it but we got there in the end!! The tunnel was seriously ‘gloopy’ and slippy. On a drier day it would have been much easier but we managed it. Took a while to get all that clay off our wellies though🤣 We know you like your local history so if you have any ideas for places with interesting stories that people may want to see please so let us know 👍 Exploretheuk@outlook.com 😎

Thanks Kath. Yes, you’re bang on about the route through the industrial estate and Bamber Bridge but when we went we couldn’t find any sign of the route. It seems you only pick up the trail again ok the Old Tramway Road. We agree doing Kendal could be quite nice. Fingers crossed 🤞

Thanks for that! It’s take a silly amount of research to pull one of these together but I do enjoy learning about new stuff! With any luck we’ll do the other end of the Lancaster Canal in due course 👍👍

Thank you very much for that!!!! Yes, researching all the bits is very time consuming indeed but it’s great when it all comes together and people enjoy it! 👍

How cool is that!! Such a shame the pub was knocked down. Feels like a nice village pub in that spot should have done OK? ‘Canteen’ 🤣🤣 ‘Refreshment Dispenser’?? 👍

@@ExploreTheUK1 There are still a couple of pubs within walking distance. The Royal Oak in Rip Row at the next bridge north is still open, and the Dog Inn a bit further on, just over the border into Clayton-le-Woods has spells of being open. Both would have had much canal-based trade, and predate the turnpike which is now the A6. Further on is the Lord Nelson, a name which hints at the boats which passed it. The line of the canal can still be made out in the fields to the east as you drive up the M61 just beyond there. Some of my ancestors lived at Rip Row in the mid-19th century. I've a feeling that "Rip Row" hints at the type of people living there. Certainly "Botany Bay" at Chorley, on the section of the Lancaster Canal which was taken over by the Leeds & Liverpool, gained its name from the number of ne'er-do-wells around the canal basin. 😀

That’s interesting what you say about the makings locally RIP Row and Botany Bay!! We did see the Lord Nelson actually and saw there was a canal marker just outside the door but from everything we have seen the canal didn’t get to there so wondered if they bought the marker as a sort of ‘antique’ and installed it at the pub??

Thanks Ian - really appreciate that 👍

Thanks for that. Watch this space…

Thanks for that 👍much appreciated!

You are very much welcome 👍👍

Thanks - welcome to the fold 👍😎

That’s a lovely offer thank you!! Our email is Exploretheuk@outlook.com. so perhaps we could work out logistics from there?

It certainly flatters my amateur flying skills 🤣

❤️

OH MY WORD - well done!!! That must have been quite the journey??

You’ll make us blush 🤣

Hi there!! Stick What3words into Google and it will explain but essentially you stick the 3 words we show either into their app, or into the website and it shows you exactly where we are. All of the country is mapped out and every spot has a what 3 words marker 👍

...and the three words can even tell someone where to find you inside your house - it is accurate to within 3 metres.

@@DaimlerSleeveValve Indeed, in fact we went on a first aid course recently and they recoomended giving the emergency services the W3W for your address instead of the address!

Thanks Darren. Watch this space…

Oh wow, it would have been fantastic to see the tram road through Bamber Bridge! We tried to find something for the video but couldn’t find anything other than a cottage near Todd Lane we think it was, although the cottage looked to be in the wrong place (?), and a newer small housing estate with a TramRoad name near Kellet Lane? There has clearly been so much building over the decades it’s buried an awful lot of it.

Hi Ian, I often run along the path at the back of the school field and always looking for clues as to the original tram road. Currently I am trying to find where it left to cross brownedge road near the subway station into the new housing estate and then to the bridge at meanygate onwards to the McKenzie Arms.

Thanks for mentioning the sleepers at the miniature railway. I went to visit them last week, couldn't find them so asked a chap at the station doing refurbishment and believe it or not he discovered sleepers in his parents garden st Mary's avenue bamber bridge during maintenance which are now in the Harris museum. Amazing who you meet on these journeys.