URPoint Details
Access to trail at all times, guided tours available. Admission free. Disabled facilities: trail unsuitable for wheelchair users.
Developing heritage trail through pleasant countryside featuring the 1833 Leicester and Swannington Railway Incline, historic buildings including an early Quaker settlement, horse-drawn tramroads, and windmill.
A Whitwick coal-owner named William Stenson approached George Stephenson, suggested that a railway to carry coal to Leicester was urgently needed.
This pioneer effort in railway history is responsible for the length of rail now exhibited in the South Kensington Museum.
The Leicester and Swannington Railway was the first line to be paid in Leicestershire.
The lines have been removed but the embankment, cutting and tunnels are still to be seen.
The last half mile of the railway took the form of a 1-in-17 rope-hauled gradient known as Swannington Incline.
A powerful stationary winding engine pulled loaded coal wagons up from the mines in the Swannington area to Coalville, from where they could be taken by conventional locomotive into Leicester and beyond.
- Type:
- Public Amenity