Ron Freethy's Drive and Stroll - Salford Quays

I HAVE written many times about the River Irwell, which begins life between Burnley and Bacup and then runs through Rawtenstall, Ramsbottom, Bury and onwards to Manchester and its confluence with the Mersey.

In the days of Queen Victoria until the 1950s, Lancashire was industrial first and healthy last and its rivers were used as dumping grounds for industrial and domestic waste.

Most of the streams and small rivers such as the Irk, the Medlock and the Roche eventually fed into the Irwell, which then oozed its stinking way into Manchester Docks.

The Mersey Basin remained an eyesore, with nobody prepared to keep an eye on it, until 1985 when the Mersey Basin Campaign was set up.

The 25-year plan to clean up Lancashire's rivers is now almost half way through and even the most severe critics will have to admit that progress has been spectacular.

A few years ago the idea of a stroll round the Irwell docks would have been regarded as sheer lunacy but what has now become known as Salford Quays is now a tourist target as well as being a place for people to live and work among spectacular scenery and one of the cleanest environments in Britain.

From a tourist point of view, the centrepiece is almost certainly going to be the £130 million new building devoted to the work of the artist LS Lowry. The opening is planned for the year 2000.

Lowry was a Salford lad who painted in his spare time.

At first critics laughed at his matchstick people set in the industrial landscape of Lancashire.

Eventually people learned to look at his paintings from a distance.

As usual with artists, Lowry only become very famous when he was dead. He would not recognise the docks today. The old dock offices now gleam in the sunlight. These buildings no longer serve the original function but have been divided into office suites.

The exterior is spectacular and overlooks the dockside, which is lined with upmarket offices, flats, hotel restaurants and shops.

Car parking has not been easy while development has been going on but things are now settling down.

Anglers now abound and a few years ago fish such as roach were introduced.

The water around the quays is now so clean that the roach have been found to grow faster than those in many other rivers of Britain, including the Thames.

Birdwatchers around Salford also have plenty to enjoy, with regular sightings of pochard and tufted ducks.

More than 40 species of invertebrate have been found around the quays but it has to be admitted that a sophisticated scheme to keep the water oxygenated has been evolved.

Such schemes are very much at the cutting edge in the fight to improve our polluted rivers. Many visitor centres in the Mersey and Irwell Valleys have leaflets, some of them free, describing walks around the various areas.

There is a lot of wildlife.

Between Bacup and Bury, for example, there are regular sightings of kingfishers.

The weirs, which were built in the 18th and 19th centuries to speed up the flow of rivers which were used to power the early mills, have been restored. These act like natural waterfalls and add oxygen to the water. This helps aquatic animals to survive and these then provide food for fish.

I have written about the Irwell many times, but this is the first time I have explored Salford Quays In just a few short years it has been converted from an eyesore to one of North West England's tourist sites.

I know of many people who enjoy walking the Ribble Way. They could do worse than plan a trip along the Irwell Way.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.