Around Preston

I have a vague plan to walk the length of the canal,. but only in short sections. I did the southern section last week, and the start of the north section a couple of years ago, and the latter determined the start of this journey. This, then, is where the Woodplumpton Road crosses the canal, and as far as I walked last time. The green scum seems to be quite a feature, and is apparently pennywort. I have seen a boat on the canal skimming it off, but clearly there is more work to be done. It does seem popular with swans; I have seen numerous on the canal. These cygnets look almost adult. A short way further along, there is a sluice. This mechanism would keep the canal the right depth. It is a reminder of the engineering involved. from Preston the canal heads north for 43 miles, perfectly flat the whole way. Pretty incredible for ca. 1800. Overflow from the canal goes over the sluice, and I guess then goes left to drop down into Savick Brook, which we will encounter later. The building on

Haslam Park sits between Tom Benson way and the Lancaster Canal, northwest Preston. Preston has several parks, and this has to be the easiest to miss. A high fence carefully screens any sign of it from Tom Benson Way, and around most of the rest of its periphery, access is from a number of dead-ends off suburban streets no one will just happen upon, and there seems to be no signage - not until you have got out of the car, and walked into the park. This is the entrance from Cottam Lane. It looks impressive, but to find it, you have to know it is here, to venture under the railway and road. It is telling that the car park has space for just five cars. The main entrance is from Blackpool Road. That is pretty much all you can see of the park from the road; a gate and a handful of trees. A short side road to the right of the gate leads to a car park - this has space for 35 to 40 cars. There are no signs to tell you this is a park, as opposed to really fancy house. No sign from the road to t

 Over the last year or so I have tracing the route of the Old Tramway - that is all on another website . The tramway was built to connect to the two sections of the Lancaster Canal, which was built to connect Wigan with Lancaster and Kendal, and undoubted had a big hand in kickstarting the industrial revolution in Preston. Today, I explored where the Lancaster Canal meets the Leeds Liverpool Canal. Construction of the Leeds Liverpool Canal started in 1770, well before the Lancaster Canal, which was not started until 1792. Nevertheless, it was the Lancaster Canal that was built between Westhoughton and Chorley, and the Leeds Liverpool Canal then built connecting spurs to that, and paid tolls to use it. This was later an annual fee, and later still it just became part of the Leeds Liverpool Canal. I guess at some point it got widened. The Lancaster Canal is mostly a fairly standard width, while the Leeds Liverpool Canal is significantly wider - so much so that it was able to continue to