A Railway, A Canal, & A Priory - The Remarkable Remains Of Grace Dieu - The Walk | EP 240

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]I've been running in circles. Hit 10,000 miles of pavement trying to make it all make sense.

[00:00:13]I've been under slept, overworked, overstressed. I'm exhausted, but I got you.

[00:00:23]M I've had friends that have thrown me aside like a burned out cigarette.

[00:00:32]And times that I've taken it all, but then lost it.

[00:00:38]I've been misunderstood.

[00:00:41]Tasted the bad with the good, but I still got >> Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the walk. My name is Gareth and today I'm in the Leicester village of Thringston. Bit of a mixed bag this one. All within basically a square mile.

[00:00:56]I'm going to be exploring the remains of a long bankrupted and abandoned railway including a gorgeous vioaduct. Then I'm going to try and find a bankrupted and abandoned canal before finishing up at a 13th century priary which I'm told is haunted.

[00:01:40]Okay, so usual drill. Let's get Google Maps up. This is where I am. I'm in something called Grace Jew Woods. Now I'm going to follow the Charmwood Forest Railway all the way down over Grace Jew Vioaduct until I get to Grace Jew Priary. And at that point I'm going to try and find something called the White Lady.

[00:02:00]I hope she's not too scary. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, that don't look like much, does it? Bit of woodland. Quite nice. Very quiet. It's actually a track bed. And there we go. At that point, it becomes clear as day. So this is the Charmwood Forest Railway or rather it was. Now that's obviously a new decking.

[00:02:19]So let's get down here and see just how old it is underneath. Uh not very particularly, is it? Um although to be fair, the bottom bit looks a little bit older. So this ill- fated railway was built in 1881 and it was built to connect this brand new coal mining town of Coleville with Lurra which is just outside Leicester. Now, unfortunately, it hit bankruptcy pretty much immediately. And so, luckily for them, at that point, the London and Northwestern Railway stepped in. They'd been trying for some time to get into the the the coal fields of Leicester, you know, get a uh get their foot in the door. And so, they saw this failing railway as an opportunity to do that.

[00:03:03]So, that's what they did. They took over the railway. They put a couple of extra stations on it, expanded the infrastructure, and went bankrupt within 2 years.

[00:03:12]Although with that one, from what I was reading, it was a little bit more down to the skills of the bookkeeper, or rather the lack of skills of the bookkeeper than it was to do with the railway itself. So, I'm walking down the cutting. It's not particularly big, but you still got to blast all that rock out. So, it's still, you know, going to cost a few quid. Dang on.

[00:03:35]We got a sleeper.

[00:03:38]I said in a previous video I could find a sleeper on Mars. I reckon I could.

[00:03:42]Everywhere I go, they're there. Now, I don't know if that's to do with the railway, but I'm on a railway. So, do you know what I mean? It is then, isn't it? Now, these woods, they're called Grace Jew Woods. Now, everything around here is Grace Jew. So, the vioaduct we're going to come to, that's called Grace Jew Vioaduct. And then the priaryy, the 13th century priary right at the end, that's called Grace Jew Priary. So, I'm not sure where that name comes from cuz we're actually in the middle of Thringston. So, um, I did try and find that out and I couldn't find out an answer to that. So, if you know the answer, if you're local, why is it called Grace Jew? Please let me know.

[00:04:18]Now, at this point, the track bed says, "Not tonight, Henry."

[00:04:24]And the stingers seriously say, "Not tonight, Henry." So, I'm going to walk you around. Loads of footpaths around these woods. It's lovely. But you can get back on it in a sec. And just like that, I'm back on it. But as you can see, we've gone from cutting, well, small cutting to well, small embankment, but it's an embankment nonetheless. Now, I'm going to follow this down. There's bridges. There's this wonderful vioideuct, and then at that point, I'm going to try and find the canal. Now, this ill- fated railway was closed to passengers in 1931. So, that's mega mega early. And actually, at the other end of the priary, which I'm I'm going to end the walk at today, there was a halt. So, I'll have a quick look and see if there's any remains of that. But, um, it was just a wooden structure. So, you know, I'm not holding out much hope.

[00:05:11]Although, to be fair, the embankment's got a little bit more significant now as I'm coming up. I'm guessing then to to get towards that that vioaduct now. The uh the railway carried on until 1962.

[00:05:26]But when I say carried on, minimal stuff really because there's so many railways in this area, so many canals in this area that ended up being the uh the death of it. And here we go. We've got ourselves a bridge. Now, let me get down. Bridges look cool from underneath, don't they? If we're honest. Oh, I could go, couldn't I? Oh, yeah. I could stack it here, mate. That' be funny, wouldn't it? Lol. Right. Here we go. Oh, mate. So there we go. So there's our first proper bit of infrastructure then.

[00:06:00]Bullsead through bridge. That isn't the name of the bridge. The bullse is a pub.

[00:06:05]Um probably quite a nice way to end the walk, wouldn't it? To be fair. I'll film myself trying to get back up cuz that way it's funny, isn't it? The look of fear in my eyes as I'm losing my footing. No. Survived. Right now in a bit the Charmwood Forest Canal should make an appearance. Now, if you think this railway was, you know, a bit of a failure, going bankrupt twice and then um closing very early, the canal was even worse. So, the canal opened in 17 well between 1794 and 1798. Of course, it takes a while to build a canal. Um but by 1808, it was already gone. um a massive reservoir of course which which they need to uh to provide water for the canals that burst his banks and went Bosch and uh and flooded a large area of Leicester and spelt the end of the canal and by the time basically they tried to get some money together I tell you what it's not a bad embankment now it's pretty big by the time they tried to get a bit more money together to try and kind of either do a repair job or reopen a certain section and go by that point other canal canals were in the area.

[00:07:13]Other tramways were in the area and then this railway um along with other railways came along and that was the end of that for that canal. So I'm not sure what's going to be left in terms of remains of that. This is a serious embankment now. Um but I'll hunt for it. This is a serious embankment now. And you know what? It's happened really quickly as well. I thought that was a bridge there, but it's not. It's a fallen tree. It's happened really quickly to go from the little cutting to the little embankment to the absolutely enormous embankment. It's happened in a very short short period. So, you know, I mentioned earlier it's haunted. The priaryy at the end.

[00:07:52]It's not just the priary, I don't think, that's haunted. When I was reading about the local area, it turns out that these woods are basically massively haunted.

[00:08:01]I'm on the vioaduct. Do you know what?

[00:08:04]It doesn't make a song and dance about itself.

[00:08:09]I mean, you'd think you'd do a bit more in terms of a pathway, but then I actually, in a way, I kind of like it.

[00:08:14]Let me come down here first of all, then. So, right in the middle of the woods, and Oh, that is gorgeous.

[00:08:21]There's got to be an easier way down, isn't there? There probably is. But where's the fun in that? Um, all right.

[00:08:27]I'm going to get down underneath it and then I'll climb back up.

[00:08:32]Oh, god. I'm going a bit quicker than I'd hoped, mate. Right, let me get all the way down to the bottom. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Here we go.

[00:08:42]That is beautiful.

[00:08:45]That's a stunning vi like that, ain't it?

[00:08:51]These woods are lovely, you know. Well, until the ghost turns up. It might be a friendly ghost at the moment. It I mean like Slimer. Slimer was all right.

[00:08:59]Annoying, but friendly. Um, I tell you what else is annoying is trying to get a view of this vioaduct. Um, the trees are everywhere.

[00:09:07]But then, do you know what I mean?

[00:09:09]There's something quite nice about that.

[00:09:12]Especially how like the ivy drops down like that. It's cool cuz it doesn't make a song and dance about itself, does it? It's just sort of I'm in the woods looking epic. Deal with it. Going to try and do this in a w.

[00:09:24]This is like the travelator from um from Gladiators.

[00:09:28]Um, only harder. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. Um, right. This is not going well. This is going to hopefully save me, but I'm going to have to leap for it. I'm just going to keep rolling. I got it. Don't know what you're worried about. Right. I'm on top of it. I survived.

[00:09:49]Single track then. I mean, it's just a little branch line, isn't it? So, it would be Let's have a look over.

[00:09:56]Oh, mate. I like trees, but they're killing the view a bit. But it's pretty high. I'm out of breath now after that.

[00:10:04]That was close, wasn't it? Proper nearly went. It' been funny though, would it?

[00:10:10]So, I mean, if you can't laugh at yourself, what's the point, right? Eyes peeled then for the canal. We've got ballast though, you know.

[00:10:21]Look at that. So, this was lifted in 1962, but we've got ballast. And is that No, it's not a sleeper. You've already had one. Stop getting greedy, man.

[00:10:34]Now, having looked at old maps, it looks like the railway goes right alongside the priaryy and then the canal basically skirts underneath the railway and goes round the priaryy. So, I'm hoping then that's a cow. That is I'm hoping then that's the uh that's how I'm going to find it.

[00:10:54]C was really going for one. How's it going, Mo? What's up?

[00:11:00]Do you know what? After I've looked around the priary, I'm going to have a look down the end there cuz that's where I might do it now. It makes sense, doesn't it, to like finish the railway bit and then stop being a flying a greenhouse, which is what I often do.

[00:11:11]So, I'm going to go and see if there are some remains of this halt. Like I said, I very much doubt it because it was built in 1885 by the London and Northwestern Railway.

[00:11:21]It's a bit of a bolt-on. Um, what's this? We've got a mile post.

[00:11:27]Yes, mate. Now, I wouldn't have got that, would I? If I hadn't carried on.

[00:11:30]Now, through there is the priaryy, and I can actually make out some of the remains, which is awesome. Plus, I get closer to the movies. Mate, calves are awesome.

[00:11:41]Right. So, eyes peeled for some remains of a halt, which like I say, I'm not m This one's following me. Which, like I say, I'm not Well, he's actually trying to head me off. He knows where I'm going, doesn't he? Yeah, I'm not overly optimistic about remains of this hole, like I say. But if you don't look, you don't find, dear. Yeah, I think the computer is going to say no at this point. This is the site of the hole, which is quite high up on an embankment.

[00:12:07]Obviously, this is going to drop off now where the bridge is gone. So, they've built this road, I assume, later, but maybe not. It might be a This might have well been the bridge, but okay. No remains of the halt, but this was a station at one point. You just imagine a nun getting on a train. Now, I know obviously it's out the timeline by a good few hundred years, 300 years, but um 400 years, but um when I lived on the aisle of white growing up uh there, there's a an abbey there called Core Abbey. And when we used to drive past it, my mom always used to say like, "Look out, see if there's a monk at the bus stop." There was always a monk at the bus stop.

[00:12:51]I don't know where he's going. But on this one, on this priary, the nuns, which is weird. It's not weird that there were nuns. What's weird is they weren't allowed to leave. So, normally, see, you'd have there were 16 nuns in this particular priary. Normally, you'd have obviously the nuns are there and they'd go out and do their bit. They weren't allowed to. They had to stay here. So, it's almost like a like a prison in a way, which is quite odd, isn't it? So, I've walked back just that little section. Now I'm going to come down here because I'm pretty sure now the canal should be going underneath the railway. So there should be um well I say there should be a bridge and now I'm thinking that actually the railway came along like 70 odd years after the canal. So in theory there ain't going to be a bridge is there?

[00:13:36]I've done myself there folks and there isn't one. No. So the canal I think this is the canal then. Nearly fell over then. Yeah, cuz it's in water. Look, there's water through there a little bit. All stagnant, obviously. But this embankment's obviously come after the canal is closed.

[00:13:58]So, the canal's gone. It's been gone for like 70 odd years until this railway comes along. Ah, sicker. I should have known really, shouldn't I, that there wasn't going to be a bridge.

[00:14:10]I got me years out, mate. Um, by quite a lot. All right, I'll walk back over the railway over the other side. Canal, then priaryy. Nearly fell over again. I don't know what's going on. And here is the canal, the other side, the ill- fated Charmwood Forest Canal, and that skirts all the way around the priary.

[00:14:31]So remains, but not many. Okay. Now, what's interesting about this priary is it was built in 1235. And like I say, it had 16 nuns here, but also had 12 patients um cuz it worked as a hospital. Now, there it is looking amazing.

[00:14:50]I was about to say, oh, mate, look at that. So, there's the railway.

[00:14:59]Now, what's strange about this is there's a bridge there, but there isn't a bridge there. Unless I've walked over it and missed it. I bet I have. I reckon it's there. What a donut. Right, I'll try and find it in a sec.

[00:15:15]Oh, mate, that's Imagine that. Looking out the window of your train down at a priary. That would have been epic.

[00:15:20]That's incredible. And there's a photo of the halt. So, that's what I was trying to find earlier. Obviously, I had no chance to die a wooden structure like that.

[00:15:29]no chance. But it just looks like an epic site and it's massive. Like there's there's there's buildings all around the edges as well. Looks incredible. What's really interesting about this is obviously apart from the fact the nuns weren't allowed to leave which itself is quite strange is it wasn't destroyed by Henry VII. Obviously I look around abbies and priies and stuff like that and it's always you know the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538 Henry VII came along. Bosch that's not what happened here. Now, it got shut down as a priaryy. It was done, of course, but it was immediately turned into a home.

[00:16:02]And actually, the ruins we're looking at today are not the result of Henry VII, but the result of the owner in the 1800s who basically bulldozed a load of it. I've got absolutely no idea why, but it's an absolute sicker.

[00:16:18]And it might explain why this ghostly apparition, this white lady that the locals speak of is cheesed off cuz you know what I mean? You've knocked down Math. This is incredible though. Look at these little fireplace there. And obviously they've repaired the chimneys.

[00:16:34]They've done a job on them which is great. But look at that mate.

[00:16:40]That is awesome.

[00:16:43]This is so old, isn't it? I don't know why I'm asking. Yeah, it is. But when I said earlier like it's massive. Look, you got all these structures here as well. It's absolutely enormous. Right, let's get over here cuz that's where it's really kicking off by the look of it. So these stories of the white lady, they go all the way back to 1926.

[00:17:06]And actually, they became so legendary, so common place, so well known, so experienced by so many people. They actually wrote a book about it in the '60s that I think did quite well cuz I think it was quite a thing. And there's that railway arch that I completely missed. Oh, mate.

[00:17:24]Look at that. That's epic.

[00:17:27]Big fireplace up there as well. This would have been This is an enormous gaff, isn't it?

[00:17:34]Like I say, 16 nuns, 12 patients at any time that I was reading were from the poor basically from from the poor people of this area of places like um Thringston of course and Whitik, which is just down the road. Um they were brought here to be cared for by the nuns that were basically under house arrest.

[00:18:00]That is serious, isn't it? What an amazing And that's awesome, too. I mean, the railway is great as well, but it's just it's just cool. And it's huge. It's absolutely huge.

[00:18:14]Let me have a look around here.

[00:18:17]Oh, mate.

[00:18:20]So old. Different world back then, would it? I wonder what they'd think if they looked at the world now. Not necessarily just the nuns or the patients, but just people in general. You know, you go back to like 12:35 when this place is built and you took someone from here and went bos and just watched them like react to the world. Just send them walking down the high street and then just observe them. I bet, mind you, I'm a bit like that when I walk down the high street nowadays. I've got me gobb half the time at some of the sites. But there you go. That's the world we live in. Hope you enjoyed that, ladies and gentlemen. Just a little explore. Great remains of the railway. Vioaduct was amazing. canal was a bit of a disappointment, but having gone in 1808, I wasn't really expecting much to be fair, but this place is absolutely incredible.

[00:19:05]And it's just free to just walk around.

[00:19:07]It's amazing. Hope you enjoyed it.

[00:19:09]Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.

[00:19:15]We got the evidence.

[00:19:21]only thing making sense.

[00:19:24]Beneath the surface, our chaos turns a peace.

[00:19:31]Cuz true love runs deep. And I got you.

[00:19:42]I still got you.