Leominster's Tragic Canal Story.
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2023
- Welcome to the ill fated leominster Canal. I haven't done an explore like this in an age, and it felt amazing. Tiring and amazing. Big thanks to Steve at / @courtabovethecut for his company and help during the day!
Also a big thanks to the Friends of the Leominster Canal: www.leominstercanal.co.uk/
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @pwhitewick or
/ paulandrebeccawhitewick
As always, we are not historians, I just enjoy learning about routes, transport and such, and sharing my journey of learning with you. These videos are not specifically there for educational purposes, more so for you to learn a little (and maybe a lot more thereafter) and join me on these adventures.
Credits (Public domain if not stated):
Filter: Snowman Digital and Beachfront B-Roll
Maps: Google Maps
Maps: National Library of Scotland
Maps: OS Maps. Media License.
Stock Footage: Storyblocks
Music: Storyblocks
Music: Epidemicsound 
Развлечения
The middle arch of that aqueduct was blown up for practice by the home guard in WW2. The Harleys who built Berrington Hall through which the canal runs on the borders of the park down to Leominster were major investors in the canal. Fireplaces in the mansion were coal on the first floor and in the wings. It was taken from Morton where there was a turning pool / wharf. It was a contour canal hence the strange embankments etc. On the estate at Berrington was a lock keeper's cottage, demolished in the 1950s, which accommodated evacuees from a Midlands town. It was nearly hit by a German bomber unloading ordinance on the way home.
The original plan called for 27 locks to drop the canal down to the River Severn. It was a Quixotic enterprise from the start. Coal from The Mamble at the Eastern end of the canal that was built caused a radical reduction in fuel costs in Leominster. The tunnel at Orleton was intact until the 1970s possibly '80s when the Orleton end collapsed. My brothers and sister went through it, end to end, in the 1960s.
Sorry but wrong! The common but false story!! It was blown by the 216 REs on the 29th May 1941. in the Battle of the River Teme of Western Comand's Exercise Hops (part of a mock invasion of England). Please see the HE/FoLC blue plaque on the aqueduct!! David Slater FoLC
That’s interesting to know, my research suggested people didn’t know if it was a collapse caused by sappers in the war or a natural fall
@@CourtAboveTheCut The local Home Guard were considered 'a bit of a menace' by some. In one instance, a visitor to Berrington had to be sprung from temporary imprisonment by zealous home guard soldiers. It turned out he was a military officer back from the war who looked "a bit dusky and foreign". Some in the local home guard were delighted at the freedom it provided in contrast to what was a highly controlled and restricted world of very limited horizons in pre-war rural Herefordshire and Shropshire. There was more than a bit of truth in 'Dads Army'.
Steve is right until I had an amazing lucky break followed by 2 years at the IWM and their war diaries!! The summary details are reflected on the blue plaque at the aqueduct placed by HE and FoLC. There is a very short RUclips of the plaque being unveiled. David
Thank you! It’s folks like you who keep the pathways open just by using them. I’ve had so many issues with my local paths becoming overgrown, fenced off and even turned into construction sites! We need to use them folks otherwise they disappear without even being noticed.
Newnham Bridge through tenbury wells was part of the wyre forest line coming out of bewdley going to wofferton.
Just LOVE your enthusiam Paul. It carries us along with you without all the obstacles! Really great video. Thank you😊
Thank you
The joy of flicking through you tube and seeing a 7 minute old Pail and Rebecca vid, total joy when slightly tipsy on a Sunday afternoon. Thanks Paul, cracking story from a lovely part of our glorious land.
Paul, not Pail
@@Hairnicksyou can edit comments at the top right
Very interesting, Paul. Looks like the whole thing was a fool’s errand, destined never to be completed or used sufficiently to even return a dividend… all that hard work!
Congratulations to yourself and Steve for defeating the horrendous postcovid vegetation and many thanks to you both for producing your own excellent videos of your excursion. They show the Leominster Canal in a new dynamic fashion and successfully highlight why it is so special. The visitors book at the Teme Aqueduct goes with the HE/FolC blue plaque on the aqueduct (seen in the background in the video) recognising demolition of the central arch by the 216 REs 29th May 1941 (NOT the Home Guard ) in the Battle of the River Teme of Western Command's Exercise Hops (a mock invasion of England). Unless stolen (!) there is a pen in the hole for signing! Would be great if you both went back to sign it!! David Slater Friends of the Leominster Canal. .
Thank you David. We had a very enjoyable day. No pen that I saw I'm afraid. Next time!
Wasn’t it eventually destroyed by Mr Ellis from the quarry?
The aqueduct proved too challenging for the REs first time round so they called in Mr Ellis from the local quarry for their second attempt! David
Ah well. The pen probably ran out of ink!! We must replace it.
David
Hi Paul, nice video of a canal in Herefordshire I never knew about. But, and it's a big BUT, from a Herefordian, born on a Roman Road on the same day as your birthday, its unforgivable murdering the word Leominster. Its Lemster, in Herefordshire. Not Leominster in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. And The Severn not Thames. We are nowhere near te Thames 😅Apart from that, great entertaining video 😄☺️👍
Thanks Paul and Steve. I never knew there was a canal there.
I really appreciate you soldering on despite those little verbal mishaps (not a problem by the way 😊).
Great video. Your enthusiasm for these forgotten treasures is well noted! Thank you.
Just as a reminder: Leominster is pronounced “Lemster”. 😂
You are not the first to muddle that one up, and doubtless, you will not be the last. 🤣
And Worcestershire is pronounced Woosteshir.
Or Lempster
@@richardwebb5317 Yes, either.
There is a short stretch still in water near the Berrington estate. By strange coincidence our local walking group walked that same stretch of open curving canal near Little Hereford just a few days after you had done the recording. Wouldn't have been possible the next day as the Teme went into full flood as result of Babet!
I was in the area 30 years ago and exploring old rail lines etc. I was intrigued by the Hereford canal, but this didn't come into my radar at the time. I wish it had!
Thanks-I've done enough masonry to always be excited and impressed by the workmanship and scale of the old old culverts you find and show us-
What a fantastic section just before the last aqueduct, it looked like an old hill fort.
You're going to have to go back with a pen to sign the visitors book now!!
Great video, well done, have a great week!!
In the background I saw a hint that said section might be near the 100 Acre Wood. Something to investigate next time you're in the neighborhood.
Paul and Rebecca, I would love you to investigate the railway from fort augustus through Invergarry to the existing main line to fort william. I am old now, 77 and I live on the island of Crete. But this railway always intrigued me. There is so much left there, not the rails but the embankments the stations etc. If you have time, check it out and make a video. You would make me a happy man. Ray Berry. You could always come here for a holiday. There are no raiways in Crete, but I could show you a huge Roman City. Take care, Ray.
The aqueduct across the Teme was blown up in WWII,. As a child growing up nearby I was made very aware of the anger about this locally. It was a very sore point. My father skived school and sneaked past guards to watch the demolition. There is a very fine bridge at Easton near Little Hereford. You cannot see it now as the garden that it is in has become very wooded but I used to be really puzzled as to why there was a bridge there, not over the railway or river on the other side of the road.
Seeing the terrain Paul and Steve struggled through on this walk makes me wonder how much effort was put in to originally survey the whole area to find a route and then eventually move all that earth around to build the canal. And all for very little benefit.
I really do always wonder about that too.
Newnham park... One of the best mountain bike venues in the glory days of 1996 and 1997... Hilly!
"I've got a tree" priceless
This must be one of your most arduous videos to have put together for us. For that we thank you for such a fascinating story and detective work to find those aqueducts. Top work, now have a rest!
Thank you. It certainly felt like it. Another all about the tunnels this week coming.
The visitors book is so cute! I teared up a little at the final aquaduct, it’s so beautiful yet it’s so sad what we have lost
I thoroughly enjoyed that! I love that part of the country, it has a real quiet beauty that means that it is sadly overlooked.
The thin, flat bricks of the aqueduct reminds me off Roman bricks!
@9.08. & 13.40 .. Ha ha ha Nice 1 Paul ☺ Excellent content as always too .
Thank you, STEVE, for the LEMSTER not Leominster not Leminster pronunciation.
Great video, Paul.
Leominster is named after its landowner, Leofric, who set up a minster there. Leofric owned lands right over to Coventry. Spoiler alert... Leofric made unpopular tax laws. Leofric was married to a certain Lady Godiva ( who also owned land in Herefordshire, with her sister, around Woolhope, world-famous for its dome - and spider fossil.
Signed
Someone living 12 miles from Leominster 😂 , near Kington, slightly further from Knighton🙄
Kington?
and Knighton@@DrivermanO
@@MONTY-YTNOM Kington and Knighton are two separate places. Confusing, I know, but that's how it is! But the original post said Kingston, which has been corrected!
I know I live near there :) @@DrivermanO
Thanks Paul - I did a bit of rambling in the Mamble/Lindridge area in 2016, following up on the Parry family - my 18th Century ancestors (miners and agricultural workers). I enjoyed seeing the area again in your video.
Just NW of Kinsgland on the A4110 is a house called Drybridge House where, the canal would have passed under the road on its way to Kington had it been finished. There is a similar rise in the road on Lugg Green Rd north of Kingsland where it would have passed under the road. Perhaps next week's vid will show this area.
Plus the remains of the Lugg Aqueduct foundations but usually hidden underwater! David. Slater FoLC
Thankyou Paul i used live in Leo minster always had an interest in the canal thankyou for a great video ❤
Crikey! You're lost without Rebecca to keep you in line! No pen or pencil, confusion over names - Leominster is pronounced Lemster!
I grew up in New England , the correct pronunciation is Lemonsta
@@wrp3621
Kinda like Woosta!
Or Glosta!@@damianbailey7537
That first aquaduct is at the boundary of my cousin’s land .. as kids we used it as a way across the Rea. I was very saddened to see it was no longer traversable a number of years back. Such a shame.
Like you, I've walked this canal, and there is a lot of fascinating remains to be discovered. I'd recommend you get hold of the book 'The Tenbury & Bewdley Railway' by Beddoes and Smith, which covers the cut in great detail - part of the Wyre Forest line was built using the old canal trough. Also, 'Side by Side Mapping's website gives original first edition OS 6" maps which show the route quite clearly.
There was to be a tunnel under the ridge south-west of Mamble, linking to an inclined plane above the Severn at Bewdley, but this collapsed durinbg construction and so it was never finished.
The Salisbury to Southampton canal makes for a good exploratory walk. It never made it to Salisbury, and from memory the tunnel under Southampton was dodgy. There are rumours of sabotage that terminated the bit that was operational for a few years - the cart haulage business from Salisbury to it's port was very entrenched by the time the canal was started...
I’m not sure which video it’s in, but I just wanted to say that my favourite outtake is Steve saying (in a serious voice) - “I’m a plumber” said whilst standing in front of a long collapsed, long abandoned and ancient tunnel portal. Too funny. I love it. Thanks Steve.
🙂🐿🌈❤️
Go check out his channel! "Court Above the Cut"
It's incredible to see everything in this video. I couldn't imagine they build embankments for canals, how to hold the water in there? Amazing 😮
hi Paul and Rebecca, great video as always , really well done and thank you 😊
I’ve got a tree…. Paul’s new found super strength 🤣
A nice video Paul. The joining of Steve was grand. As usual, a great video to wait for today. Hello Rebecca for me! Cheers mates! 🇬🇧🇬🇧🙂🙂👍👍
That was great fun and your Steve seems like a very nice bloke. I laughed when you said LEO MINSTER. As I was yelling at the screen LEM STER, your Steve was saying lem ster. Good chuckle here! Thank you for that. LOL
It cannot be overstated; English is an awful language. No phonetic consistency what-so-ever.
If you want to name your town Lemster, fine, but don't write it down as leominster then.
At that point you're not "correcting" the non-locals, you're bullying them.
@@LeafHuntressHow about Happisburgh in Norfolk, then? It's pronounced Hazeborough ie Hazeburra!
I live in the Kent village of Cowden. So many grockles (and newcomers) call it Cowd’n but the locals call it Cow-den. Easy way of telling who was brought up here and who moved in from Lunnon!
Another great ‘bricks and mortar’ video! Cheers!
I lived there for years and never knew about this cut. I live on a boat now
Love your videos. I live in Canada, and even i know that it is Lemster!. I spent 3 days in Hereford last year, with a side trip to Lemster. Beautiful little town, i really could live there. Interesting that while the town of Hereford is pronounced as 3 syllables, in Ontario the beef are just 2 syllables. I was surprised to see Burford on your map -- there is also a Burford in Oxfordshire, and a Burford in Ontario close to my hometown.
Great video Paul and Co. very atmospheric. 10/10. Best bit of course "🎶 'e fell over! 'e fell over! 😂" Reassuring to know it's not just me whilst out playing in the woods. 👍
You must be an expert tick checker with all of the underbrush hiking! 😂
Indeed!
Terrific stuff Paul - great perseverance through all the growth and thicket called a 'pathway'. Lovely views, filming and info as ever. Came straight here from Steve's take on the day's adventure. Looking forward to the next one about the tunnels... 👍
That was impressive. Thank you.
Nice one. I have never heard of this canal before, and I live on the network.
Excellent video!
Yes, this was really a very nive adventure and made for a very good video. Nice idea to let Steve do some of the narration.
I totally loved the video, as usual. ^^
Great video as always Paul, I'm looking forward to the next one on Sunday!
Another fine production Paul Those aqueducts look amazing. I hope you got some good rest after that very long walk. Thanks for bringing this content every week its brilliant.
Brilliant explore. So interesting. Well done. What a find in history. Thank you for your hard work, research, trekking.
Great video 👏
The railway Would have been the "Wooferton line" or "Wyre Forest Branch" from The Severn Valley, just north of Bewdley to Wooferton, on the Hereford to Shrewsbury line.
I can remember the tracks being lifted at Little Hereford. There was some creative timetabling at the end with the need to change trains at Tenbury/Burford. And they did not connect. I have been told by relatives that Woofferton (which has some good canal remnants) was considered as a new town and had that happened the railway would have probably survived.
Really enjoyed it. Thanks.
Clearly the Map Men need to do another video on hard to pronounce British place names.
Magnificent Paul, well done. I think we can forgive you for an excellent video and your repeated faux pas of Leominster, the excitement truly got to you...
Thank you, another great video, loved the aqueducts and the engineering.
nice!! thanks for this!!
Some very interesting finds on this trip, would love to see all those outtakes Paul, Great video
Hi paul don t worry about how say leominster i live here i have trouble with people on the train line when i say it i had severail times where i been told its some where else i ve had to spell it and say in hereford and worcester .what intersting video i never knew that was a canal another good one i learnt something about the area i never knew
7:03 - It's like something out of a dream! Edit: 15:40 - Oh my! Y'know I hang on your every word through every video just like I do Time Team. Would Charlie take kindly to a letter from a Yank proposing Sir Paul, Sir Steve, and Dame Rebecca??????? Wear your wellies to the ceremony to be real about the whole thing.
Haha... thats very kind!
Great and enjoyable Video as always ☺️👍.
@ 10.30, LOL!! yes i've done that myself.
Excellent video really enjoyed it. Very interesting.
this is literally down the road from me, i live in Ludllow and have always felt it a shame the canal never succeeded, with the modern buildings as they are its unlikely the canal will ever be made in its original ideal which is a pity, another great video thank you
Ludlow.....top food festival....!!!!
There was a planned extension to Ludlow running parallel with the main street of Ashford Carbonel and down through Saltmoor. No sod was cut however.
@@richardwebb5317 wish that had gone ahead too
11:15 - the engineering on the British Canal Network gets more and more amazing with all the videos I watch and articles I've read, but 2 See such a thin wall that is on the ledge of a hill is mind-blowing. I'm sure I have seen canals that have this feature, but they have never been pointed out to me as they are usually leisure videos... If this network isn't one of the wonders of the world (it is to me) lets at least recognize it (put it as a footnote on wonders of the world list) as one of the greatest works of man kind.
Fab video. The eleagic english landscape. Pity no pen to sign the book.
wow this was a good one - great show and tell
Beautiful
Thank you Steve, oh the stick I got at school after moving to Bromyard (it's about 10 miles away from Leominster) for saying Leo minster and not Lemster.
I Love Canal Videos And This Was An Amazing Video Like All Ur Other Ones!!!
Another interesting video. It proves that HS2 is just one of many infrastructure projects that have been abandoned over time. Hopefully HS2 will be completed one day.
I've tried to figure out that tunnel portal you mention at 2:03 with the google maps screenshot, but is that really visible on that image? After crossreferencing it from many other maps, I still can't see anything there.
All will be revealed in... 6 days time.
Thanks Steve. I've just subscribed to your channel!
13:52 It's a stile. A sty is a pigpen, or an infected sebaceous gland on the eye.
Lemster! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I lived in Stourton, Stourbridge next to the canal from Dudley to Kidderminster fo 10 years … thanks again for a great report and for the canal that shows its face for people to recognise 👏👏👏🏴🇦🇺🌎👍⚔️
What an effort!
Nice to see you venture away from Wiltshire.
Great video which, besides the superb aquaducts, now sadly in a very neglected state, also shows some beautiful embanked sections - which can often be overlooked.
A very interesting video, it's in good to see on video rather than in books. i have a book at home The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway Published by Wild Swan. The first part of the book covers the the construction it's life and demise of the canal. Tenbury station was built partly on the bed of the old canal some parts of the Railway also used the canal bed. Thanks Paul and Steve for a great video.
To be fair, I always get Kington and Knighton mixed up 😃
Hi Paul I am intrigued to know how you got home from there.
We do have roads in Herefordshire but the surfaces are the same as they were in the 18th century in places!
Technically your photo of Brecon Canal Bason is not on the Monmouthshire Canal but the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal. Anyway, fascinating as usual. Thanks, Paul
My mate Mr Bird and I were in Stockport in 1976...Oh..1796...Stourport you say... Sorry, my mistake. Lol.
I was that tired I didn't even notice I said that
Those bloody British place names tripped you up.😅
No wonder Americans always get them wrong
And us Brits
And even the locals can’t agree on how to pronounce Shrewsbury.
Im a local and it annoys me when people pronounce Shrewsbury incorrectly. I ask them "what sound does ew make? Chew, new, few, stew. You pronounce those words correctly" Now say Shrewsbury.
According to the books I read before leaving the US, Cirencester was pronounced "Sis-sester", only to find now the locals pronounce it as it is spelled. (Or maybe I only encountered newcomers who pronounced it that way.)
6:15 Wow, that flipping fence was kinda dodgy wasn’t it? 😳
But as you said, you guys are tough. So tough, you eat nails for breakfast 🤣
My big brother used to say that to me. He was much older than me, so as a little kid, he was my absolute hero and I believed everything he said.
Ha ha. Stay safe, stay tough and eat your nails.
It’s the most important meal of the day 🤣
🙂🐿🌈❤️
You do a series on the various bits of half completed HS2 line?
Of course you can see the hills of Wales, you were standing in occupied Wales when you said it. The Welsh border was, a one time, as far east as Abberly Hill not very far from Stourport-on-Severn and the River Severn.
When you look at the map, there’s a ‘Frank P Mathews tree shop’! You should have taken your tree there! 😂😂
Even after Steve advises: Lem-ster (well done Steve), you still go with Lemin-ster. How much stick will you get from this 😂
Milestones often have Lemster or Lempster on them.
Have you seen the Falkirk wheel ,if you like canals or do a video about the Glasgow Edinburgh canal.the anyone wall can be seen as well.
Loved the video..
Unrelated tangential observation about so many RUclips videos..
Why is it whenever someone uses any music from ‘Epidemicsound”, they never give the name of the tracks used, just jot down ‘epidemicsound”?
It’s like making a video using numerous movie footage, and then crediting the footage as ‘Hollywood”..
It doesn’t exactly narrow down what people might want to look for… o.-.O
Given the amount of footpaths and lack of funding maybe we should concentrate on the paths that links up with other paths,canals etc even if this means losing a few paths that go nowhere
So how close to the River Severn did it get??? It's sad it didn't reach the river and when you think of how transit corridors work, there must have really been a canal building mania to even have them start this project without the proper funding to reach a river canal connected to the network, because that is absord to think it would work isolated!
There's me correcting the pronunciation to Lemster and then Steve corrects you XD
Welcome to the county of my birth
10:30 - LOL
If the canal was not connected, then there would have been no way to get barges to it. That must have been a serious drawback to this canal. A little more thought and it could have worked.
!!!
@tardismole good point!
14:39 I'm looking at the embankment, too bad you're not in the shot tho
Even in Massachusetts we say "Lem-minster" 😂👍 (ok not Lemster 🤓)
Wow indeed @ 7:04 !! Oh and 10:30 still laughing! Good job you didn't end up on your backside. 😳
Edit: I thought I put this comment on the main video but YT seems to have put it on the short? Or on both??
How the hell did the surveyors work out the fall of the canal over such a large distance?
Training and practice.
Like you work out most things!