WHEN the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was built in the late 18th and 19th Centuries there were complaints that the countryside would be devastated.
The construction of reservoirs to provide water for the locks resulted in heated court cases.
Within a few years wildlife adapted to the newly-created habitats. This week I visited Foulridge, the reservoir at the summit of the canal.
The water from the locks flowed in one direction through Lancashire into the River Mersey. In the other direction lock water flowed down into Leeds and from there into the River Humber!
On a wet May morning I watched a great crested grebe attending its nest, and also among the reeds were the nests of reed bunting, moorhen and coot.
Soon there will be several species of dragonflies and butterflies were already in evidence.
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