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| The development at the former School of
Farriery took a significant step forward in August 2000 when the first of two bridges was
completed. The site was developed by Grantchester Retail Parks who have worked with the
Trust to ensure another piece of the 34 mile long H&G puzzle is put into place. Although the canal originally went through the site, there was no point following this line because the line is blocked on an adjacent property. Instead, a line was chosen which runs along the A49 at the front of the site and then cuts digonally across the site to join the original line parallel to Burcott road, and thence into the city. |
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| The Retail Park's spine road crosses the canal so a 6.5 metre span road bridge has been built to accommodate the canal. Its 10 sections were cast on a skew (well, we're fond of skews) and craned into position. The tops of the sections are more attractive than they might have been, featuring arches rather than a straightforward box section. |
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| The bridge will be finished with brick approaches and a towpath wall. |
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| The end of August saw a new footbridge with a 13 m span constructed some 100 metres away. |
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| This project is now completed as Hereford Retail Park with a 10 m wide canal corridor of about 300 m length and a further 3 m wide towpath at the front of the site. The following pictures show the finished appearance. Most of the canal is grassed over for the time-being. When we do come to work on it we'll be learning what it is like to build a canal on a gravel base - although, curiously enough, a small stream runs beside the canal line! | |||||||||||||
| The completed road bridge |
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| The completed footbridge |
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| The canal bed with the stream running along the far side. |
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