The End of the Caldon

Consall Forge Railway station overhanging the canal (a little narrow here!)

Beauty - typical Caldon scenery

And the Beast - Thomas Bolton's Copper Works at Froghall

This is our 100th post!

We set off from the Holly Bush at 9:30 and continued down the Caldon. The scenary steadily improved as we got further into the Peak District as the Churnet Valley got narrower. The canal started at about halfway up the steep side of the valley and travelling down the valley dropped through 4 locks to meet the river where both waterways shared the same course for about a mile. During much of this journey the canal was remote from any sign of the modern world. There are no roads in the area, the only intrusion being the railway now managed by a preservation society who run steam train trips at weekends.

We stopped for lunch at the end of the river section at Consall Forge. This is a delightful wooded spot with the remains of old lime kilns and a pub, the Black Lion, which is unusual in having no public road access, its customers being mainly boaters,walkers. and steam train travellers.

After leaving Consall Forge we travelled on through the particularly narrow and shallow canal to finish at Froghall where in former times canal boats were loaded with limestone from the quarries in the hills. We were hoping to travel the quarter mile to the end of the canal but unfortunately Densie is slightly too high to pass safely through the short and exceptionally low final tunnel.

As a contrast to the wonderful scenery we have seen in the past two days, Froghall is dominated by a historically important large copper works which now appears fairly derelict. Wkipedia tells me that this is where the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was manufactured.