Restoring Preston Basin campaign: www.prestonbasin.org

The Restoring Preston Basin campaign proposes the restoration of the 300 feet (91 metre) long Preston Basin of the Lancaster Canal, repurposing the site of the 19th century basin as a 21st century multipurpose amenity, recreational and biodiverse space. Four possible restoration options are outlined on the campaign’s website.

The campaign is a response to the Preston Station Quarter Regeneration Framework, which was launched in March 2022 and outlined a number of objectives for the area, including to improve the public realm, create new open spaces, reuse heritage assets and develop a network of green infrastructure. Preston Basin, once a major transhipment basin of the Lancaster Canal at its terminus in Preston, currently lies beneath the car park of the Aldi supermarket and the Corporation Street Retail Park on the corner of Corporation Street and Ringway, within the framework’s ‘University Walk’ quadrant.

The site of Preston Basin provides an ideal footprint with the potential to help deliver some of the objectives of the framework, repurposed for a multi-functional, open, green and biodiverse space. The basin does not necessarily need to be restored in the conventional sense with water, and could instead be restored as an open, green space which has been recently achieved with a former canal basin at Murrays’ Mills in Ancoats, Manchester and a sunken garden landscaped in a ‘dry-dock’ at the Thames Barrier Park in Silvertown, London, 2 of 8 inspirational examples outlined on the campaign website. With some reconfiguration of the indicative development proposed for the site in the framework, 2 open spaces already planned immediately north of Preston Basin could be repositioned to the site of the basin.

The Lancaster Canal, Preston Basin and the adjoining tramroad played a crucial role in the development and growth of Preston at the beginning of the 1800s. Sadly, the basin is currently buried and largely forgotten. The release of Preston Station Quarter Regeneration Framework provides a once in a generation opportunity to restore and incorporate the site of Preston Basin, and the Restoring Preston Basin campaign hopes to provide a starting point for how this could be achieved.

(E-mail from Daniel Crowther, the website is well worth a look for the old photographs alone Ed)

We passed Tarleton Lock where the canal enters the River Douglas (or Asland) and reached Becconsall church, just beyond the boatyard. We saw the gravestones that had been damaged by a WW2 bomb that had been dropped in an adjacent field.

Canal and River Trust are often responsible for repairing the damage at considerable cost.

Until made safe it can create problems with navigation. In many instances the first job is to retrieve the stonework from the canal or towpath. In this case that does not look necessary unless the stone is dislodged in the repair.

Moss Lane bridge

On the L&L Canal not far from Johnson’s Hillock locks.

Recent damage, probably caused by a large lorry.

This type of damage is common on the bridges on the Northern Reaches of the Lancaster Canal.

There it can be due to satnavs redirecting lorry drivers to avoid hold-ups on the M6.

Usually no witnesses can be traced, the culprit drives off sharpish.

Talking of CRT spending money …

At a recent CRT User Forum, held on Zoom, the high cost of maintaining canals became apparent.

• Dredging the Ribble Link and removing 3,300 cubic metres of silt £278.000

• Dredging 2.5km of the Northern Reaches £100,000

Not everything is paid for by CRT. Many towpath improvements have been funded by various local authorities:

• Wigan 5.5km

Burnley towpath 2023 Left is a photo from our May 2020 edition. NB the finished surface will be buff coloured