Battle is on to save decaying site of former Derbyshire industrial giant
It had once produced iron parts for huge projects such as St Pancras Station
13:46, 22 FEB 2021
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KNEE deep in sludge, in a watery tip where everything from rusting cars to kitchen sinks lurked – even, bizarrely, a child’s coffin – a small group of enthusiasts rolled up their sleeves to begin a mammoth clean-up job. No longer the once bustling water motorway that saw sea-going vessels and barges transport everything from crops to livestock, to passengers from the port of Grangemouth to the heart of Glasgow, the world’s first man-made sea to sea ship canal, the Forth & Clyde, was in its death throes. Opened in 1790 to serve the industrial revolution and closed in 1963, the waterway was derelict. Choked with weeds, tow paths littered with crisp packets and broken bottles, filthy water and everything including the kitchen sink beneath its calm surface, Scotland’s longest lowland canal and its eastern cousin, the Union Canal, shared the honours of being dangerous, smelly eyesores.