Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 30th September, 2016)

The canal is 200 years old this year and to celebrate the Canal & River Trust and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Society have been holding events all year long.
These events will culminate on Sunday October 30 when the canal in some areas will be turned gold by adding a vegetable dye,
These areas will be the Wigan flight of locks and the Bingley five locks rise, Liverpool, Burnley, Skipton and Leeds.

What canal is this ?

Why is it empty? There can be no traffic through it.

It's empty because there's no water in it Maggie!. It must be being cleaned. If that was around the 1970s, there'd be bedframes, bikes, toys, prams allsorts thrown/dump in there.

I grew up in Ince and occasionally saw parts of the canal drained, although I never knew what for.

To think lads used to swim in the canal ....., !!
Ugh !

Vb.. Did those lads ever suffer any illness. Today's environment far too sanitised.
Where in Ince Mick

Vb,my Dad learnt to swim in the canal,I wouldn't fancy it either,but I don't suppose much option years ago..

The locks in particular, require maintainance and repairs, this cannot be done with water in them.

Yes they were very brave in those days -they were bred tough!,,, In the fifties though polio was the big scare - I remember having those injections and reading about children in iron lungs. I think that's when people became more and more health conscious!

Theres more rubbish dumped in the canal than there ever was and theres more daft kids swimming in it.
They open the locks to make rapids and them jump in, then they go home and the next day the canal is drained leaving many boaters stranded.

He is a video of a P A Ds Ozymandias cleaning up part of the canal bank and planting it with new plants

https://youtu.be/BA6NLFYHzpU

Vb..my Mams sister had Polio as a child..they lost their Mam when she was in her thirties so that meant my Mam had to push her everywhere in a Pram..my Mam was the eldest of four children so had to stick up for them all..Ill say times were tough..and my Mam was tough all through her life ,she had to be.,,weren't times hard for them.

Ab, What happens to the fish? There are many pictures on WW of chaps fishing on the banks so they must be in abundance. What types of fish thrive in our canals? Just wondering. Thanks for your picture Mick

Does anyone know who was the person who decided to dig out the canals to transport goods and what year. My husband learned to swim when his dad threw him into the canal when he was little.

Mary...I only fished this stretch of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal once and that was for Gudgeon which I used for livebaiting on the Lancaster Canal the next day. I could never do that now as I see it is cruel. (I was fifteen and rode my bike from Norley at the time)

Marie. I believe it was Brindley who designed and built this canal, but I may be wrong.

Someone will know who...

Interesting photo which brought many comments.

Thanks Fred. Did you catch? Love to know from those who fish along the banks ,what fish, or indeed anything other, what lives in our canals.. do we have Perch , invader shrimp , mentioned on programmes? Fred mentions Gudgeon. We have a huge industrial history regarding our waterways,.
My ignorance asks do we have a natural thriving waterway also?

if i was walking along the path i'd goto a different part of the canal which wasn't empty.

This is a lovely canal. it was very different when I was a child. very smelly especially from dead pets in sacks. I would love to see it with the celebrations.

Mary. what happens to fish, well look at yesterdays P-a-D. Easy pickings.