Ulverston Canal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ulverston Canal is a canal in the town of Ulverston, located in Furness, United Kingdom. At just 1.5 miles, it is said to be the shortest canal in the United Kingdom. It is also claimed to be both the deepest and the widest. It is entirely straight and on a single level, with just one lock at its head.
The canal was completed in 1796, in order to provide the town of Ulverston, two miles from the coast at Morecambe Bay, with a port. At 15 ft deep and 66ft wide, it was intended to take very large ships. In the days before the construction of the Furness Railway, Furness was cut off by the mountainous Lake District on its only landward side; the region was accessed only by crossing the sands of Morecambe Bay. A passenger ferry to Liverpool thus commenced from Ulverston canal in 1835, which was later complemented by a service from Barrow-in-Furness to Fleetwood.
The opening of the Furness Railway in 1846 seriously damaged the profitablity of the canal, which was eventually brought by the railway company. It was used commercially until the First World War and was officially abandoned at the end of the Second World War. It has since been maintained by Ulverston town council, who run a walkway on its eastern side. Its western side is still industrialized, being the location of a large Glaxosmithkline factory.
