Ashby Canal, Snarestone N to canal end
Selected Wild Place / Other Wild Places / Public Rights of Way / VC55 boundary
This section can be accessed from Snarestone.
- Canal
- Site of Special Scientific Interest
Total species seen at this site: 47
This section runs from the end of the Snarestone tunnel to the current end of the canal.
The Ashby Canal is 31 miles long and connects the former mining area of Moira to the Coventry Canal. It opened in 1804 and serviced the collieries but over many years the section north of Snarestone was affected by mining subsidence and was eventually closed to navigation. A restoration programme has recently led to a part reopening but work continues. As some of the original canal had been filled in and built over a new section is being constructed around Measham.
The stretch between Carlton Bridge, north of Market Bosworth, and Turnover Bridge, north of Snarestone is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, designated in 1989 for its diverse aquatic flora and invertebrates, and the submerged plants in particular.
The flora of the canal was formerly rich, characterised by the occurrence in quantity on its margins of species such as Common Fleabane Pulicaria dysenterica, Purple-loosestrife Lythrum salicaria, Water Mint Mentha aquatica, Large Bitter-cress Cardamine amara and Blunt-flowered Rush Juncus subnodulosus. At least nine Potamogeton species, including the nationally scarce Grass-wrack Pondweed P. compressus, have been recorded in the water, while there are remarkable old records of Floating Water-plantain Luronium natans and Greater Bladderwort Utricularia vulgaris. Other aquatic plants include Mare's tail, Spiked Water-milfoil and Perfoliate Pondweed. Nine species of dragonfly have been recorded as have Water Shrews, Water Voles and the nationally rare water beetle Haliplus mucronatus.
The canal follows a contour line and is lockless. As a result there are no currents and combined with the absence of boat traffic perhaps accounted for the vast quantities of free-floating aquatics such as Ivy-leaved Duckweed Lemna trisulca. Recent surveys indicate a dramatic deterioration in the quality of the canal’s aquatic flora and the restoration work to increase boat traffic give little hope of a recovery, other than in possible off-line refuges.
Common Name | Latin Name | Date Recorded | Recorded By | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Soft Shield Fern | Polystichum setiferum | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Bramble agg. | Rubus fruticosus agg. | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
7 Spot Ladybird | Coccinella septempunctata | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
22 Spot Ladybird | Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
22 Spot Ladybird | Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Branched Bur-reed | Sparganium erectum | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Common Mallow | Malva sylvestris | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Cleavers | Galium aparine | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Hop Sedge | Carex pseudocyperus | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Hedge Mustard | Sisymbrium officinale | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Herb-Robert | Geranium robertianum | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Greater Celandine | Chelidonium majus | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Hogweed | Heracleum sphondylium | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Germander Speedwell | Veronica chamaedrys | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |
Ivy | Hedera helix | 01/07/2020 | Melinda Bell | |