Today Kilby Bridge is little more than a pub and a few houses sited between the canal and railway and beside the old A50, and some of those houses appear to be derelict. There are also a couple of car lots and a boatyard.
But at the end of the 19th century it was the site of considerable industrial activity. There is an outcrop of limestone nearby and lime kilns were built and linked to both railway and canal.
According to an article in a Greater Wigston Historical Society newsletter from 1986, those kilns were disused by 1914. The quarry is still there, but it is flooded and separated from the canal by the narrowest possible strip of land. The structure in the background is a signal gantry on the railway line.
The quarry is now a nature reserve with many waterfowl. When I was there today, the canal bridge that would take you to it from the towpath side turned out to be both ruined and barricaded.
No comments:
Post a Comment