When you think of Cumberland, or Cumbria after its metamorphosis in 1975, it is lakes and mountains, Wordsworth and Wainwright, sausages and mint cake that come to mind. Canals would be a long way down any list. However there are/were canals, the Lancaster Canal in the south of the county, Ulverston Canal in Furness, and the only canal wholly in Cumberland, the Carlisle, Cumberland, or Carlisle Ship Canal, as various schemes and reincarnations were called. This canal ran from the centre of Carlisle to Port Carlisle, 11 miles to the west, on the Solway Firth.
The canal was short lived, opening in 1822, and closing in 1853. When the canal closed a railway was laid along its length. This subsequently closed in 1932. Nowadays there is little evidence of either the canal or railway. This series of caches, 11 in total, follows the course of the canal. The caches can be done as stand alone caches, or better, as a meandering day by car or bike. They are set from Carlisle to Port Carlisle,
The caches are
1: The Carlisle Ship Canal. No 1,The Basin.
2: The Carlisle Ship Canal, No 2, The Leat.
3: The Carlisle Ship Canal. No 3, The Pumping Station.
4: The Carlisle Ship Canal. No 4, The Reservoir
5: Carlisle Canal. No 5, SideTracked Kirkandrew’s
6:The Carlisle Ship Canal, No 6, Burgh by Sands
7: The Carlisle Ship Canal, No 7,The Back Drain
8: The Carlisle Ship Canal. No 8, The 2nd lock
9: The Carlisle Ship Canal, No 9, Sea lock
10: The Carlisle Ship Canal, No 10, Harbour wall
11: Carlisle Canal, No 11, SideTracked, Solway Viaduct
The Solway Junction Railway was opened in 1869 in order to move haematite iron ore from West Cumberland to iron works in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Perthshire. The previous arrangement was for the ore to move either by boat, or by rail through the bottleneck of Carlisle. There were two great engineering challenges on the proposed route, firstly the crossing of the Solway Firth from Annan to Bowness on Solway, and secondly the crossing of Bowness Moss for a mile and a quarter. Indeed it was the latter that caused the greater problems during construction.
The building of the viaduct was another reason leading to the demise of Carlisle Canal. Ships could no longer reach Port Carlisle. The viaduct altered the pattern of currents in the estuary, and led to an increase in silting.
The viaduct itself was 1950yds in length. There were 193 spans in the viaduct, with an average height of 34ft above the sea bed.
The winter of 1880/81 was particularly severe. The two principal rivers, the Esk and Eden, that form the Firth, had frozen to a depth of 12 inches. As the ice started to flow down the Solway it became trapped in the pillars. The ebbing and flowing of the tides, running at 10 - 15mph, created piles of ice up to ten feet thick, wedged between the pillars. The whole estuary was blanketed in fog, and filled with with the sounds of grinding and crashing 24 hours a day. and it was five days before it cleared. Locals and engineers found found that 45 of the piers had collapsed. It would be May 1884 before the line was fully reopened.
A 10mph speed limit was imposed in May 1915, then reduced to 5 - 8mph. In strong winds a man had to physically walk over the viaduct before any train was allowed to proceed. A reprieve was given due to WW1, but by August 1921 repairs costing £70,000 (£3.1 million in 2021) were considered too much, and the line closed at the end of the month. This though was not the end of 'passenger' use of the line. Up until the demolition of the viaduct in 1934 there was a regular crossing of people, especially on Sundays, when the pubs in in Scotland were closed, but the ones in England were open.
Whilst this cache has concentrated on the Solway viaduct, the actual station for Bowness on Solway was located adjacent to the bridge were the road crosses the landward end of the embankment. It is now a private residence.
A Carlisle Ship Canal chronology
1820 Carlisle Canal Company created; work begins.
1822 Carlisle to Beaumont section completed and filled with water. Pleasure trips offered.
1823 Canal completed and officially opened.
1826 Carlisle to Liverpool service starts, for goods and passengers, on the steamboat Solway.
1827 New steam packet, the Cumberland.
1833 Village of Fisher’s Cross renamed Port Carlisle.
1834 Iron-clad boat, the Arrow, reduces journey times.
1835 Newcastle to Carlisle railway opens. Port Carlisle becomes the gateway for UK and European migration en route to North America.
1836 Stone outer dock built to provide sheltered berths.
1838 The Arrow begins daily service to Port Carlisle for leisure travellers, increase demand prompts the Arrow’s replacement by the larger Swallow.
1844 Victoria Baths at Port Carlisle completed, offering hot and cold salt water baths.
1847 Proposal to convert canal to railway; plans approved.
1853 Canal closes, work starts to convert to railway.
1854 Railway opens with station, sidings and turntable at Port Carlisle.
1856 Drumburgh to Silloth branch line opens; Silloth replaces Port Carlisle as the city’s Solway Port.
1861 Horse-drawn Dandy replaces much Drumburgh to Port Carlisle rail traffic.
1899 Goods train cease to operate to Port Carlisle.
1914 Steam service re-introduced.
1932 Line officially closed.
1996 Tyne to Solway Canal proposed
The Cache
When you reach the coordinates you will find a mussel grader. (No, I’d never heard of such a thing either) . Now you have to gather some information and do a few simple sums to work out the final location.
A: On the mussel grader there is a wheel. How many spokes does the wheel have?
B & C: How many thin horizontal metal bars are there at the end of the grader away from the wheel? (If for example your answer is 24, then B = 2 and C = 4.)
D: Looking across the Solway, how many vertical poles are there on the remains of the first viaduct support?
The cache will be found at
N54° 56. (B+D) (B-C) ((B+C) -A)’ W03° 14. ((A+B) - (C+D)) (D-A) (A-B-C)’