Glasson Docks.

Road swing bridge across the lock up into the canal basin. Glasson Dock.

It was a wet and miserable start to the day again but our bus wasn’t due until 10.50am by which time the weather had improved. It was only a five minute bus ride to the Glasson Docks but just a bit too far to walk especially with no footpaths.

Looking across the canal basin with permanent moorings for narrowboats on the left.

We spent just over an hour exploring this little village and port the latter being built in 1787 for ships too big to navigate the River Lune to Lancaster. Trade was mainly between the West Indies and the Baltic. The canal from Galgate to Glasson was built in 1826 to transport freight further inland. Ship building was commenced in 1837 along with a Graving dock for ship repairs in 1840, the latter ceased operation in 1968. With the railway arriving in 1883 the port prospered. Passenger rail traffic finally ceased in 1930 but freight carried on until 1964. The port is still actively used but due to the River Lune silting up and the navigation channel constantly shifting it is only usable for less than 2 hours a day around high tide.

No where else to moor, they just had to moor in the lock entrance.

The moorings in the canal basin above the lock down into the harbour were full of yachts and power boats with just half a dozen narrow boats and a couple of wide beams. There was a wide variety of old boats of unknown origin around that have been converted into live aboard’s, some good, some rubbish. We found a yacht in the harbour that we presumed had just come through the sea lock off the River Lune. The yacht was going around in circles while the crew of four were dropping mooring fenders in preparation of mooring. Their first choice was too shallow for them to get in close enough to moor so they opted to moor in the entrance of the lock up into the canal basin. This lock is strictly controlled by BW as it involves a road swing bridge which I would guess would be open for at least 10 minutes while a yacht or large boat was put through the lock. We were hoping for a demonstration but nothing happened and we had to catch another bus at 12.15pm into Lancaster.

Glasson harbour between the sea lock and canal basin. Built in 1787 for ships that were too big to navigate to Lancaster via the River Lune.

Because the bus timetable is only 2 hourly we decided that we didn’t want to stay too late in town so it was into Sainsbury’s for lunch and a spot of shopping to be able to catch the 2.40pm bus back to the camp site. A bit mundane but we had plenty of things to do back in camp before we hit the road again tomorrow.

Harbour pilot Glasson dock. Ships from here used to trade to the West Indies and the Baltic.

One to ten Tenrow as seen on the wall. Workers terraced housing at Glasson Dock.