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Contents Listing - Articles & Features in this issue
Contents: James Buchanan and the Combined Coke Car by Paul Jackson, p. 3; Follow-up: Haddons Car from John Howat,p. 25; Swansea ÃÃ
Article Snippets
From 'Skimpings': This photograph was taken on a private trip on the Coventry and Ashby canals on 9th July 1910. The purpose of the trip was obviously 'pleasure' and the all male group were obviously quite 'well-to-do', possibly a society of some sort, although nothing is mentioned in the brief pencil-written caption on this, and other photographs from the same time. They do, however, contain much of both social and canal interest, the latter not least because views of the Ashby Canal are rare. The 30 mile long Ashby Canal opened on 9th April 1804 and ran from Moira, in Leicestershire, to a junction with the Coventry Canal at Marston, near Bedworth, in Warwickshire. Near the northern end, various tramroads connected with collieries and limeworks, near Coleorton and Ticknall. The first couple of decades of the canal's existence were plagued by financial problems and the first dividend on the shares was not paid until 1828. Thereafter, whilst there was a significant improvement, the proprietors were quick to sell out when the newly formed Midland Railway, keen to protect its dominant position in the Leicestershire coalfield, came calling in the mid 1840s, the railway company purchasing the undertaking for Ã
