CANAL

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal runs through our town and the countryside around it. It was built between 1770 and 1816 and was used for the transportation of many things until 1972.It really is a thing of beauty, as it winds sinuously around the contours of the land, with new vistas around every corner.

Everything about it has that "worn-in" look with the tree-laden banks and litchen covered stone walls, it looks as if it has been here for ever. The numerous bridges, usually only used to get cattle from one side to the other, the odd canalside pub.


The canal is at its best at the end of May when nature is showing off its new mantle of green. The edges full of new growth, the heady scent of the May blossom on the Hawthorn that look snow laden. Scores of wild flowers, Buttercups, Bugle, Teasel, Old Mother Hubbard, Vetch and many, many more. The grass in the adjoining meadows waving in the breeze with the odd glimpse of Clover, both white and purple.It's a perfect place for wildlife. Ducks and their fabulous newly born ducklings, the Heron who always seems to be on his/her own, who is such an ugly bird really but so gainly in flight.Squirrels, weasles, I even saw an otter/mink once. The occasional flash of incandescent blue of the Kingfisher. Majestic Swans and their dowdy offspring. In a hot summer Dragonflies with a six inch translucent wingspan. Swallows playing at "I can skim lower over the canal than you can".

But best of all, The Quiet! It is so quiet, no sound of traffic, noisy music. Just the sound of the wash of the occasional barge against the bank. The "plop" of fish as they leap out and back into the water, and it is always behind you, you never see them. Even the barking of farm dogs doesn't bother me like it does at home.

The Canal. So near yet so far.