Climate change brings many challenges and Rosemoor Gardens, Torrington have found a way to reduce their use of mains water for irrigation by working with heritage. 

The Rolle Canal may not be the oldest heritage site locally, but at seven miles length it can lay claim to being the longest. The canal was built by Lord Rolle in 1827, to serve his industrial and agricultural interests around Great Torrington. The main cargoes in would have been coal and limestone, used to make quicklime to be spread on the fields to improve the soil. Cargoes going out would have been agricultural products and ball clay, ideal for making clay pipes. The canal closed in 1871, when the railway line from Bideford to Torrington was laid over much of canal bed. Although key parts of the canal are on private land you can follow the main route on the Tarka Trail with information panels at key sites.

The access point from the tidal River Torridge is the sea lock at Landcross, three miles upstream from Bideford Long Bridge. This would have been a busy industrial site as, in addition to the barges bringing cargoes in at high tides, there were lime kilns, a pottery and shipbuilding. There is a good viewing point from the Tarka Trail. 

The water supply was insufficient to build locks, so the engineer James Green, who had previously completed the Bude canal, built an inclined plane powered by a water wheel, to pull the tub boats up the fifty feet from sea level to the level of the canal at its basin in today’s Rosemoor Gardens.  Over the winter, volunteers have cleared vegetation from this area at Ridd making it much easier to see.

In Rosemoor, the canal basin area is used as a machinery store and not open to the public. Volunteers have renovated the water supply, uncovered and rebuilt the canal bank and made safe the lime kiln. The long-term plan is to create a woodland path that will finish at the restored canal basin – an industrial heritage site in the middle of a garden. It is this restored canal basin that will be used as a reservoir for irrigation. 

Maintaining any heritage asset is a challenge and the Rolle Canal and North Devon Waterway Society are to be congratulated on their stewardship, partnerships with land owners and working at such scale on the canal projects.