Hincaster

Hincaster is a small hamlet in Cumbria, England, located between Kendal and Milnthorpe. Its population is approx 200 people. Hincaster is most famous for the Hincaster Tunnel which is the longest tunnel on the Lancaster Canal. It has a phone box, a King George letter box and a heart defibulater unit for the towns peoples benefit.

Hincaster Tunnel

The building of Hincaster tunnel removed the major obstacle on the northern section of the canal. Faced with limestone, 378 yards long, it is lined with something like four million bricks; these in a district where bricks were generally scarce as building material, were made from clay dug at Mosside Farm, on the canalside about half a mile SSE of Milness, by the present A65. On February 4 1817, it was reported that 'two million bricks had been made and half the length of the tunnel completed'.

The Mosside brickworks were too efficient, for in 1818, Thomas Fletcher, the canal engineer, put up for sale 10000 bricks, left over from the tunnel. Interestingly enough, these clay pits and the brickworks were resuscitated in 1845, employing over 100 men and 30 horses; these bricks were made for the new Lancaster/Carlisle railway.

Navvies - the tough canal 'navigators' who were to dig the Hincaster section, attended the contract meeting in Kendal, afterwards causing a considerable riot in the town'. The Westmorland Advertiser promptly declared 'Sound policy demands that the ruffians should be held as an example to the unruly multitude which the culling of the canal will shortly bring to this populous neighbourhood'.

Hincaster Branch

The Hincaster Branch was a single track railway branch line of the Furness Railway which ran from Arnside on the Furness main line to a junction with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (later the London and North Western Railway) at Hincaster (Conolly, 1997). Intermediate stations were provided at Sandside and Heversham. The branch was opened in 1867 but passenger services ended on 4 May 1942 and the track between Sandside and Hincaster Junction was lifted in 1966. A short stub from Arnside to Sandside lasted into the 1970s to serve local quarries.