Monday, October 08, 2007

Another fine, dry day yesterday so we had a blitz on the inside of the boat. At one point we had all of the mats hanging on a barbed wire fence alongside the boat!

Sunday’s mooring.
The weather changed overnight, rain blew in and gave us a grey, damp start to today. We got off around 10:30, down into Clayton-Le-Moors, past the site of Moorfields Colliery. This is where, in 1883, 68 men and boys died in an explosion caused by a build-up of methane and coal-dust. The youngest was just 10 years old.
There is an industrial estate there now, but a memorial near Pilkington Bridge acts as a reminder to passers-by.

Leaving Clayton we passed the half-way point between Leeds and Liverpool.

We had 3 swing bridges to negotiate today, all simple to operate being generally for farm access. No automatic barriers and flashing lights on these!

Several disused factories line the canal in Church.
Mural as we pass into Oswaldtwistle.
The canal does a long loop around the valley of the Hyndburn Brook, which joins the Calder near Clayton. It (the canal) runs south from Clayton, west from Church, then north and west again at Rishton.

Across the valley back to Church.
Through Rishton, and another mile or so further on we pulled over for the night. We’re a couple of miles from Blackburn, here. The built up area covers around 5 miles, and with 6 locks, will take probably 4 hours to get through. Tomorrow’s task.

Locks 0, miles 7

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