Ghosts of the Past

Time for walkies at Canal Foot for the Duddon History Group, the entrance to what was once the shortest canal in the country which today is a magnet for anglers, runners and strollers. The ship on the sign gives a clue to the reason for the canal as these came in at high tide from Morecambe Bay but there were also shipbuilders here as well. The notorious shifting sands and channels of Morecambe Bay added a bit of jeopardy to the changing  locations of piers.  The  canal had a short operational life and the coming of the Furness Railway sounded its death knell.  Canal Foot is now an ideal place to see the long railway viaduct (part of which can be seen in the background of the photo above) and the trains crossing, watch the bird life and enjoy the view,

We however were in search of past industries of which little remains but limestone quarries and lime kilns. The limestone is used in the iron making process and there were quite a few plants here at one time with also an iron ore mine but this view is what was the track-bed of the industrial rail link coming into the area and a rather fine limestone wall.

When I downloaded my photos I wondered why I had taken a picture of a field. Sheep in fields I am rather fond of but they are way in the distance then it was pointed out that banking loop to the right is also the old rail track.  In the distance can be see Hoad Hill

and the monument.  One can never get lost in Ulverston with this landmark and for generations of people a marker from a long journey that "we are nearly home".  After looking down the watery depths of the old iron ore mine we looped back to the canal

Low autumn light can make taking photographs tricky but it also lights up the colours of the few remaining leaves reluctant to let go.

After lunch at Canal Foot we journeyed half a mile down the road to the quiet hamlet of Sandhall with a handily placed postbox. In the 19th Century it was a hive of industry which included quarry, brick, and wire works and just round the corner

Carter Pool where the last ship to be built in Ulverston was constructed. From the size of it today it seems rather incredible.  Nothing on the surface remains of these industries and today this is a watery flat land and we watched hundreds of geese flying in formation in the sky, dividing and and then combining making shapes as they wheeled across the sky. Did I say nothing remains of the old industry here? Well there are two slag banks where now bee orchids grow and

a rather beautiful chimney that was once part of the wire works which operated from around 1882 to about 1919 and was left as a navigation aid for vessels berthing at Ainslie Pier, Hammerside.

The white brick banding is actually more yellow but digital doesn't pick it out too well. It looks to be in rather good condition.

I got rather excited about this chimney so clicked happily away as we passed it. Our guide for the day was Rod McKeever whose book The Industrial Archaeology of South Ulverston no doubt will guide us for another visit to the area.

Further and more informed information of Ulverston Canal and South Ulverston can be found on the Cumbrian Industrial History site




 

The Case of the Curious Chimney

Chimney and Quicksand Pool

The chimney on Jenny Brown's Point is a local landmark and can be seen some distance away whether seaward from this south side of Morecambe Bay or when walking on the surrounding hills. 

Its size can be judged by my companion making his way around the point at low tide.  It is often referred to as being as a copper smelter from 1790 (in the past small mining companies operated in the area) but there is no evidence such as the copper slag that would have be left behind from this process.

Another idea was it was a ventilation shaft for a mine but there is no trace of a mine, perhaps it was a lime kiln was another suggestion, but they did not have chimneys plus there is no discolouration inside as evidence of chimney use.  So is the curious chimney, despite always being called a chimney, ever been used for that purpose? Nobody really knows when it was built . John Bolton in a "From Keer to Kent:" journal item comes up with a possible explanation when he found an article from 1945 by E Cuthbert Woods* who made mention of a very early guide (1796) to the Lakes by Father West (author of Antiquities of Furness) complete with map of the route across the sands from Hest Bank to Ulverston. On the position of what is now called Jenny Brown's Point is shown a tower with flames and smoke issuing from the top and identified with the word - "beacon".

I

It is possible it was a guide to ships bringing ore to the furnaces of  Leighton Beck which operated from 1713 to 1806.  The sea at this time flowed further inland and there would have been a good channel half a mile to the landward side of the chimney (shown on the charts of 1736), smoke signals would have provided navigation assistance.  An additional benefit would be to provided guidance to those people crossing the sands from Hest Bank to Silverdale.

Over recent decades the changing sands have revealed the timber of the old jetty at this point.  I believe that in front of nearby Brown's

cottages it used to be sand and grass but with the higher tides and the shift of the River Kent bed  in its hundred year cycle from one side of the estuary to the other this has been scoured off. Perhaps in decades to come the water will lap once more at the protective wall and there will be a point once more for a jetty but in the days of electronic charts and echo sounders not chimney beacons .

*"Some History of the Coastwise Lights of Lancashire and Cheshire" by E Cuthbert Woods. Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Volume 97, 1945

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