Around Preston

 I took a walk that included a section of the Leeds Liverpool canal, as well as much of Feniscowles and Cherry Tree, to the west of Blackburn. I started near the Feilden's Arms pub, in Feniscowles (pronounced feni-scoals by the way). The Feilden family were important land owners, but we will get to that later... I headed west, down Preston Old Road. It is a short way out of Feniscowles into the countryside, and the land on the right falls away dramatically, down to the River Darwen. This image does not really do it justice, but you are at the height of the top of the trees. The trees clear, to reveal this derelict building. This is Feniscowles Hall, built by the Feilden family in 1808. Unfortunately for the family, over the next few decades the River Darwen became ever more polluted as all the industrial and household waste of Blackburn and Darwen got dumped in it, and eventually the stink was such that the house was no longer habitable. After attempts to improve the situation...

 I had a look at the real south end of the Lancaster Canal, where it originally ended when it was built. The canal was built to transport coal north from the Wigan coalfields, so it starts there, at a place now called Top Lock, a couple of miles northeast of Wigan town centre. Within a few years of the Lancaster Canal being built, the Leeds Liverpool Canal (LLC) connected to it, and after a while that section was leased and later purchased by the Leeds Liverpool, and so today it is known by that name, but it was originally part of the Lancaster Canal. History The engineer of the Lancaster Canal clearly disliked locks, which is very reasonably, given they require maintenance and water, plus they are a bottleneck. As far as I can see there were none on the southern section, and I do not think there were any on the northern section either as originally built (the Glasson dock branch has several). I wonder if the southern section is at the same height as the northern section, to ensure...

This is a circular walk I did one cold, but bright January morning in Lancaster, following first the canal northwards, then the route of the North Western Railway back south, beside the river. Shaw Street is a small road of terraced housing that happens to give access to the canal, and a footbridge, which I assume has replaced an older stone bridge. This is the view looking towards Lancaster; the canal heads to Preston in this direction, but I went the other way, towards Kendal. This is looking towards Dolphin Lea Bridge. Another view, looking back: The canal crosses the A589 on an aqueduct: I then took a path down to the river, while the canal went over the Lune Aqueduct, undoubtedly the most impressive feature of the canal. This took me down to the course of a railway that ran from Yorkshire to Morecambe, originally owned by the North Western Railway - as opposed to the much bigger London North Western Railway. The railway was built in 1849, and passed under the first arch of the aqu...

This is a list of bridges over the north section of the canal, in order, from south to north. Please note that this is a work in progress! The first ten no longer exist, as the canal has been truncated. The numbers are therefore somewhat speculative. A map with each extant bridge marked can be found here . Bridges 1-3(?) The map shows the Preston terminus of the canal in 1909. The first three bridges were all for sidings for the railway connections, which indicates the numbers were introduced after the railway was built. Nothing remains of them; the area has been developed for the university and a retail park. Bridge 4(?), Marsh Lane, formerly Bridge Lane This is the remains of the bridge (also visible on the map above). It looks like it was steel, and three spans, the nearest over a railway siding, the middle over the canal, the further was filled in, at least in later life. I would guess this was not the original bridge, which would have been stone like all the rest. How it used to l...