Description: The following identification for this view is believed to be correct but it has not been possible to verify it beyond doubt. If you can confirm (or otherwise) the location, please get in touch with Picture the Past by using the Add Info button at the top of this page.
Looking south-east along the towpath of the Ashby Canal towards Moira Furnace and Donisthorpe. Radagal Bridge in the background carried Shortheath Road over the waterway and sports both an oval bridge numberplate and what is almost certainly a Midland Railway trespass notice, the latter company having acquired the Canal in 1846. A water or gas main can be seen to be exposed over the arch externally, a common practice on older bridges where there was insufficient depth between the road surface and the crown of the arch to accommodate such a pipe.
The Ashby Canal ran for 31 miles from a junction with the Coventry Canal at Bedworth in Warwickshire to a terminus at Woodlands Wharf, Ashby Woulds (1.5 miles north of this view) and opened in 1804. The northernmost section became plagued by mining subsidence and was eventually abandoned between Donisthorpe, Moira and Ashby Woulds in 1944 with the stretch seen here completely filled in by 1961. All the cottages seen here (the nearest with a south-facing brick greenhouse) had also been demolished by then, rendering the scene unrecognisable.
However, that proved not to be the end of the story as between 1999 and 2005 Donisthorpe to Moira was rebuilt with a new terminus basin established on the site of the vanished Moira Baths Wharf, adjacent to what had become the National Forest Centre (Conkers). Radagal Bridge had long since been demolished, which necessitated a new bridge under Shortheath Road, while the effects of subsidence had so altered the elevation of the land that the revived section of canal is here in a cutting. This meant that a brand new drop lock (the first on what had previously been an entirely level or 'contour' canal) had to be constructed on the far side of the road to allow boats to reach the final stretch of the navigation.
In 2014 this section still remained physically isolated from the remainder of the canal, which had closed south of Donisthorpe and through Measham to Snarestone by 1966 and still awaited reinstatement.
This image was produced by Derby-based postcard publisher F W Scarratt but it is not known what number it was allocated in his series.