Number 1257 in the series, number 3 in Scotland!
This is an offset Multi due to the already quite high cache saturation along the canal however, we felt that this bridge was worthy of a cache of its own (albeit an unfortunately small one!).
Copyright Kelly Stewart Printmaking Illustration ©
Leamington Lift Bridge is the only surviving example of an electrical lifting bridge on the Union Canal. It was designed by Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle for the canal owners, the North British Railway, and installed in ca. 1906, at Fountainbridge (not this site) as a replacement for a lift bridge of 1869. The below image shows it in its original location.
Copyright City of Edinburgh Council ©
Due to a decline in canal traffic, the Port Hamilton and Port Hopetoun basins were closed and filled in by 1922 and, as the canal then ended south of Fountainbridge, the lift bridge was dismantled in November 1922 and later re-erected at its present site replacing an earlier wooden lift bridge shown in the below image.
Copyright Historic Environment Scotland ©
The bridge, after finally ceasing to operate in the 1960s, was fully refurbished as part of the Millennium Link Project (despite early plans to keep it locked in the open position) and has been in regular use since its re-opening on 22 March 2005. It is the first bridge west of the new terminal facility at Lochrin Basin and no longer carries road traffic making it eligible to be part of the Little Bridges series.
The Cache
To find the cache you need to find the following pieces of information.
- On the north side of the bridge there is an information board entitled "?, wellies and beer". How many letters are in the missing word? Answer = A
- Staying on the same info board. The Scottish & Newcastle Brewery took over the North British site in 197B
- Moving onto the "Glasgow to Edinburgh Canoe Trail" information board. From east to west the distance to the Falkirk Wheel is 4C.1 km
- Now climb up the pedestrian walkway to the left of the main bridge (this can be done at any time). Once at the top count how many long wooden beams make up the walkway. Answer = D
- From the top, looking towards the canal terminus, a four letter word can be seen written on the side of a building in block capitals. Assuming A=1, B=2, C=3 etc. what is the numeric value of the last letter? Answer = E
- Looking at the same four letter word F is the number of letters in their colour.
- Continue down the south steps counting them as you go. G is the number of steps (Hint: Even)
S = F / E
T = G / (D - B)
U = A x E
X = A + E
Y = (C + E) / D
Z = (G - A) / D
The Cache can be found at:
N 55 56.STU
W 003 12.XYZ
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The Little Bridges series was started by Stanthews in 2009 to highlight small footbridges in remote parts of Wiltshire. Since then the series has been expanded by others all over the country and starting to spread fast, Damian from Winter Foxes has created and updates a list of cachers who has found 10 or more little bridges and can be found here, if you would like to add to the series, please contact Stan on stanthews@aol.com and he will give you a number for your bridge, to qualify, the bridge must be a foot bridge too small for vehicles, please make sure your title exactly matches “Little Bridges # xx then name” including spaces so it will get picked up and added to Damian’s list.