Radford to Camerton
January 2014
Having jumped a few hundred yards where the canal line runs through some inaccessible private land and burrowed under Weekesley Lane (no sign of the bridge), it emerges from under some back gardens and into a building site, which is currently being excavated.
Canal bed in building site
This excavation has revealed the edge of a wharf wall and a silted black line where the bed of the canal used to run.
Canal bed beside Durcott Lane
From here the canal runs under or next to Durcott Lane to the cross roads at Camerton Hill. There is little to see but where the canal has been built over they have helpfully called a street Canal View Road. Then the canal path is fairly obvious, running to the north of Bridge Place Road, its line a clear strip of green meadow which ends with a row of cottages built across it.
The canal is under the "new" cottage on the left.
And here is one of those little dilemmas. The cottages all look old so where did the canal go? After a bit of thought I realised that the end cottage has concrete lintels and no chimneys so my guess is that the end one is built on the canal line which then kinks into the narrow confines of the valley at Camerton Colliery.
The bed of the canal is probably buried under the tailings of Camerton Colliery to the right
Your description of the route of the Somerset Coal Canal through Camerton is wrong. The photos you show are of the route of the old railway line and sidings to Cameron Colliery. The canal ran to the north of the colliery batch and the cottages.
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