Ashby Canal Bridge 34a

Bridge 34a once carried the Ashby to Nuneaton Joint Line across the Ashby Canal. The bridge is situated on the southern slope of Ambion Hill, site of the famous Bosworth Battlefield where King Richard III lost his life. This canal built to serve the coal fields of Moira and Measham it meanders through 31 miles of fairly remote Leicestershire countryside ( whoever said Leicestershire was boring!)

A very poetic place this, an inspiration to walk around on this extremely mild December afternoon. Wonderful to capture the final direct, weakening, rays of December sunshine fade ardently into the decaying brickwork of the north-west abutment. While photographing I got chatting to a man walking his dog who knew the area very well, Snarestone to Bedworth he recalled every bridge between.... 

North of this site, a dead straight cutting scythes battlefield woods on route to the heritage railways southern terminus. This space an echo chamber, you can hear the faint cries of that battle reverberate only interrupted by distant steam train whistles.  Sporadic whiff, faint mild breeze hauling the scent of the coal these trains carried.  Sunset red to my left silhouetting the quickset with gaps flooding gloriously soft light into the patchwork of this sites remarkable history. A beautiful area.