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Leigh

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Leigh is 11 miles west of Manchester. I have to be honest, it is not somewhere you would go to visit - but if you look closely you can see signs of its former importance in the industrial revolution. It boasts two canals, though as they meet here end on, to a casual glance they look like just one. A branch of the Leeds Liverpool Canal approaches from the west. This bridge seems to be the end of it. Not the original one here; this one was built to allow trams to cross the canal. Looking the other way, this preserved crane indicates where a branch of the Bridgewater Canal arrived. While the two canals are still in good order, the railways are all gone. There was quite a network in the area with lines heading east to west from Manchester to Liverpool, and other lines going south to north, and numerous other lines to serve mills and collieries. It is all gone now, some converted to roads, but one has been converted to a guided busway that heads towards Manchester. The start is where Leigh ...
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Hest Bank

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Hest Bank is a village just north of Morecambe. It is notable as the only point on the West Coast Mainline that is actually on the west coast. it is also one of the few places on the West Coast Mainline that still has a level crossing. If you drive over the level crossing, the road turns right into a free car park next to the beach, and that is where I started. The beach is pebbles, not sand, which is perhaps why it did not develop as a resort. This is the view looking southwest, and if you look really closely you can see Morecambe on the skyline. I think the white building in the centre of the photo is the Midland Hotel. This is looking north-northwest, across Morecambe Bay at the hills of the Lake District. I think the town in the middle of the photo is Grange-Over-Sands. Walking across the sands of the bay was once a shortcut to Lancaster, and the safest path brought the traveller to Hest Bank. I walked south along the beach - not easy. This is the view looking back, with the cark p...
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Garstang

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Garstang is a small town half way between Preston and Lancaster. The West Coast Mainline passes it to the east and the A6 to the west, and our walk started near to where where the A6 crosses the Lancaster Canal. Canal So here is the bridge that takes the A6 over the canal. The canal is crossed by an aqueduct nearby. This is the pipe bringing drinking water to the Fylde from the Pennines, and as it indicates was built in 1923. Prior to that Blackpool got its water from aquifers beneath the town. Behind it is the A6 bridge again. The bridge that takes Moss Lane over the canal. A nasty one in the car; only one vehicle at a time, you can see nothing of the road ahead. Kepple Lane Bridge. There is a canal basin which had wharves on either side at one time. A warehouse, possibly a tithe barn, is now a pub called Th'Owd Tithe Barn, and looked popular on this sunny afternoon. The canal then narrows to cross the River Wyre. The view from the aqueduct looking west, down the river, as it head...
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