An eyesore no more

I RECENTLY discovered a fascinating stretch of the Leeds to Liverpool Canal.

This set me wondering about finding a similar walk along the Lancaster Canal from Preston.

I began at the Cadley overflow, once a coal depot, which has been recently renovated by British Waterways.

This is situated close to the huge red brick edifice of Tulketh Mill on the outskirts of Preston.

At one time this area was an eyesore, with the canal being little more than a dirty ditch.

The improvement has been so dramatic that a fleet of pleasure craft has been established and is attracting more and more customers.

These colourful boats seem to have encouraged private boaters to use Ratcliffe Wharf.

On the opposite side of Cadley overflow is a towpath which is a popular walk.

To the left is Haslam park.

This is the area proposed for development into the Ribble Link.

This would allow boats to move between the Lancaster and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.

Some people think that in the heyday of canals there was a direct link between these two cuts.

In fact it proved to be too expensive to construct an aqueduct over the River Ribble and a compromise was reached by constructing a horse-drawn railway bridge from the terminus of the Lancaster in Preston to the main line of the Leeds-Liverpool.

This Old Tram Bridge still stands, spanning the Ribble near Avenham Park. My walk continued around Haslam park and, like all town parks it is rich in natural history.

I watched jay, woodpigeon and treecreeper and a willow warbler was singing its heart out.

Suddenly a flash of blue along the canal indicated the presence of a kingfisher, always a welcome sight.

The Lancaster was, like many of Lancashire's canals, a "Two Cs" cut.

Cotton and coal were important but of equal importance was limestone.

The latter was brought into the growing town of Preston.

More and more limestone was needed to produce the mortar essential to hold together the bricks of mills and the terraced houses associated with them.

There was also some movement in the opposite direction, with the long drop toilets in the town being emptied into manure barges. These were emptied and the contents spread on the farmlands of the surrounding countryside.

Horses were the main form of transport in Victorian towns and horse manure was brought in one direction and their fodder in the other.

This contrast between town and countryside around Tulketh mills and Garstang can still be seen today and British Waterways is playing its part in cleaning up the cut.

As I strolled the towpath, my list of bird sightings was impressive.

A song thrush was bashing snails against the stone bank of the canal.

There were lots of broken shells in the area, proving that the thrush knows how to get at the soft body of the snail.

These areas are known as Thrushes' Anvils.

The plant life in this area was equally impressive and included comfrey, germander, speedwell, red campion, elder and rowan.

My most fascinating sightings was right at the end of my walk.

I saw a grass snake swimming in a sinuous twist across the canal.

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