As part of the Pendle Walking Festival 2007, I led a walk, one of the Tacklers' Trails: "Colne Canal Cotton Circular", on Saturday 1st September.

A "Tackler" was a male Overlooker or Supervisor in the Cotton Mills with responsibility for setting up looms and maintaining them.

He had a key job in the industry as evidenced by the presence of Tacklers' Clubs in Mill Towns, such as Colne.

The aim of the Trails is to connect the dominance of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal with the growth of Cotton Weaving and Spinning Mills and the Communites which served them, such as Colne, Nelson and Brierfield in the Borough of Pendle, East Lancashire.

In Colne, for instance, there were 55 Mills operating in 1900 of which 27 were in Waterside 17 in the South Valley alone.

Now, none of the Mills are used for their original purpose and many have been demolished.

One of them, Stanley Mills, built by Robert Shaw, in its hey-day, employed 1,200 workers in 2 large weaving sheds with 60,000 spindles and 2,600 power looms.

The Colne Canal Cotton Circular Trail followed the two main routes for bringing cotton bails from the canal into Colne by horse and cart, having been transported from Liverpool by boat - one via Greenfield Road to Barrowford Locks Wharf and the other from Wanless Water Wharf via Red Lane and Heirs House Lane.

If readers are interested in the other 4 Historical Trails, one Linear Walk along the Towpath through Brierfield & Nelson: "Tacklers' Trail" and 3 Circular Walks: Tunstill Trek, Weavers' Walk and Walton Way, then please log onto www.pendlelife.co.uk or ring 01282 870076 or e-mail me at david.penney53@ntlworld.com