River Stink
 

Could anyone tell me please if the river hyndburn is still referred to as the river Stink. Does it still stink. Has it been cleaned up or is it still polluted?. Forty five years ago, even though it was polluted, I could still catch stickle backs in it along Hyndburn rd near a lodge. Are they still there? It was a long time ago since I last smelt it. If I close my eyes and concentrate I can still smell it:)

Re: River Stink
 

Yep...still stinks Terry, but nowhere near as bad as it did. In fact, I've seen one or two larger fish in there than sticklebacks. But it's still called the Stink.

Re: River Stink
 

They're probably still sticklebacks, but they are new mutant versions from all the pollution...

Re: River Stink
 

The lodge is still there too, right next to the Asda supermarket. Or should I say the Asda was built right next to the lodge?

Do you remember when that site was occupied by Ewbank?

Oh come on T it really can't be called stinky these days. There's no gunk in it.

I still think we should make a feature of it round Black Abbey/Oak St area.

Re: River Stink
 

It is actually quite remarkably clean these days, except when it has been raining hard, then it fills with mud.

When did you last have your nose near it Tealeaf?

Re: River Stink
 

He can smell it from his front door :eek: :eek: :eek: I would not compare it to the River Avon or any other river for that matter. It's still the "Stink" even if it smelled of roses!!

Played many an hour by its banks on Nelson Square! That's probably why I've nearly lost mi sense of smell!

Re: River Stink
 

I passed the River Stink this morning......it didn't stink and it looked quite clean...... though I must admit that these observations were taken from road level......I don't think it would look good if I climbed the railings and went down for a proper look......besides they might have had to get a crane to lift me out:o

Re: River Stink
 

:drink: the stink got that name because it did!now if you take time out to follow the stink you will see all different species of wildlife,i have personnally seen brown trout and kingfishers.these would not be seen anywhere near a water that was polluted.if you are lucky and walk down the dunk where the river hyndburn and the tinker brook meet you may even see deer!

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Only thing i have seen down there is cows and bulls.

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And possibly the odd AccyWebber taking photos. :D

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Does anyone remember the houses on Croft Street?. They were just along from Stuart Engineering and backed onto the River Stink. They were squalor properties and were knocked down in the late sixties

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I must be thinking of the wrong Croft Street (Eileen Cross lived there). The one I'm thinking of was near Sacred Heart Junior School on Bradshaw Street. That was in Church...and quite a way from the River Stink. Or have I missed another Croft Street Uncle Mick?

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I can't think where the heck Stuart Engineering is/was but I know I ought to know.

I can only think of that Croft Street too Darby. If I could find my map it would help.

Re: River Stink
 

My dad used to work on Croft St, at Conveyor & Elevators, (before they moved to Grange Lane), it backed on to the Stink, he used to tell us that they saw quite a lot of rats in the lower part of the building.

When I was a kid we used to play stepping stones in the river ,down by Nelson Square, opposite Lina St, we also went frogging and could catch loads of little frogs.
We once found some small cardboard barrels and tried to sail down to the tunnel near Sharn Hall, but being cardboard they disintegrated after about 15 minutes and we were all knee deep in the smelly, dirty water.
Needless to say, mother was NOT impressed and I was kept in for the rest of the weekend. She was a hard woman!!

Re: River Stink
 

I remember that as a kid with four others we all climbed over the wall on Bull bridge and we all went into the tunnell with the intention of going as far as it would go till we reached daylight again. There wasn't much water on that day. We didn't get very far when someone made a noise in the dark and we all started screaming and came running out like the devil was after us. It sure was eerie in there.:D

Re: River Stink
 

Anyone recall the river as it came out from under the Car Park - you could climb down and walk along under some factories and there were massive rats running about.

Re: River Stink
 

I do not think I would use the term "remarkably clean" to describe the Stink; it has certainly improved, as I said in my original post but not to the extent that I would want to clean my teeth in it. Yes, there are some largish fish to be occaisionally seen in it, but then the Thames has salmon in it again, despite the fact it receives substancial sewage discharges in bad weather (700,000 tons on one occaision in september). I would'nt want to clean my teeth in there either.

Two weeks ago today I walked over the bridge at Church, next to the Sports Centre and there was a horrible looking discharge entering the river from the outlet just the other side of the bridge. I only noticed it because I smelt it. It did'nt look to nice, either.

Re: River Stink
 

that will be the waste water from the swimming baths t-leaf wouldnt want to brush my teeth in there either!!!

Re: River Stink
 

This is probably the part which ran at the back of Croft St.

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Can you help me with the location of this Croft Street in relation to what is there now?

Re: River Stink
 

Willow, if you stand on the corner of the Aldi carpark nearest the petrol station, with the river on your left then thats Croft Street. You would be looking towards Bradleys Transport garage with Conveyer and Elevators works and I think a tripe/black pudding making place on your left against the river. God the whole of Bull Bridge/Milnshaw Lane/Hyndburn Road has changed since I was a kid...and I`m only 42!!

Re: River Stink
 

Thanks Uncle Mick.

I remember some of the way that area used to look, the Ambulance Drill Hall, Ken Clegg's TV shop, a blacksmith, The Australian.

Re: River Stink
 

Is that river in the picture at the top part of the Stink?

Re: River Stink
 

That looks more like the canal to me.

Re: River Stink
 

I only asked because I'm not familiar with your part of the world :)

Re: River Stink
 

If I had time today I'd take a photo of the river for you but it's going to be a bit of a hectic day.

Finding the river could be quite a challenge for anyone who doesn't know the town. You'd even be forgiven for thinking we didn't have one. Most of it is underground. I can understand why it was better off hidden in the olden days when it did indeed stink but I think we should make more of a feature of it now and open up the areas where it is still visible - turn it into an attraction.

As for the canal. It doesn't actually come through Accrington but it features in parts of Hyndburn such as Clayton le Moors, Church, Rishton and there are some very pleasant walks along its bank these days. At one time it was full of rubbish and the towpaths were in a right old state but it has been cleaned up a lot. When I worked in Clayton and in Rishton I enjoyed a stroll by the canal in my lunch hour.

River Stink
 

Hi, two old photos showing the Croft Street area of town. Sorry about quality. This might help people to remember the area.

Re: River Stink
 

:) Thanks Atarah. That helps me try to visualise it all much better.

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how is this hehe

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At last Atarah. Somewhere I recognise. That's the street that leads up to the clock garage. That's the st. where I mentioned in another post we used to come down on our billy carts. Milneshaw st. I had forgotten but now rings like bell. What a ripper. Now all that is familiar territory.:D

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Alas no longer Clock Garage at the top of Milnshaw Lane.

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:drink: does anyone remember where they put the animals,before they went into the slaughter house?

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Old grave yard that was opposite the slaughter house on hyndburn road, i think.

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:drink: you are right janet i think they put them in there to eat the grass they say it was nutritional with plenty of body in it,can you remember when someone opened the crypts it was in the local papers.

just wondering how less got to be around here...he..hee!

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Seeing the photos of milnshaw lane takes me back to my paperlad days for harry pollards whos shop was next door to the bull pub my first round took me up union st then up eagle st and the area round the old baths back to the shop my second bag then ready first delivery up the steps on the right under the bridge about four houses there one of the familys were the deans a biggish family if I remember rightly then under the bridge a row of houses left were aldi is two familys I remember on there brian wriggleswoth who sang in the choir at mary mags church another family jackie hibberts a good footballer who played in the same pioneer works team as my older brother jim my round took me across the round then up some more steps were perrys park someof there cars one of the familys there the jacksons there son alan I knew very well my round went then owenst haywood road aitkin st queens road and my last deliverys was round the wards victoria hospital then dash back home to get into my uniform and on parade with the church lads brigade

Re: River Stink
 

The Stink had trout in it around Broad Oak works,that was in the 70's coz we used to catch them and eat them.They could be found in that stretch behind the Bridge pub,then the river went under a bridge and I think it was there that a lot of polution was poured into it from the Town Centre by the time it surfaced just at the other side of Accy Car Park near the Viaduct.Anyway the Thames has over 100 species of fish and is very clean now - it looks muddy and that is the way it's been for 1,000's of years,apparently!

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Here is pic I took in 1988 of bull bridge. Nice and clean and tidy. Milnshaw and Croft round to the right. I suppose it looks different again now. Castle street gone. etc. I remember a pawn shop in Castle st.

Re: River Stink
 

Here are a few more for you

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Absolutely enthralling pics for me. Thanks for that Nick. I am just going to have to save up and come back for one last time to see Accy. Don't know when but it'll have to be soon. Last time didn't have much time. This was an area that I used to know like the back of my hand. It had changed when I was here last but I couldn't take it all in:)

Re: River Stink
 

Sorry. Mick not Nick.

Re: River Stink
 

tewrry, maybe theose large fish are stink-lebacks! lol ha ha ha ha ha

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Great photos Mick. It hasn't changed too much from when Terry took his.


Does anyone know why some of the viaduct arches are thicker than others?


Just another little bit of useless information - that graveyard along Hyndburn Rd was called Macpelah and belonged to the Baptists. Apparently it means "God's acre"

Re: River Stink
 

there where two cottages next to the graveyard one got knocked down and the other stood for a few years after!the people that lived in there had the surname ball!there is a couple i remember cedric who was a big guy and rode moterbikes, and carol his younger sister who was small and petite,the fair used to be held across the road on ellisons tennant,i also remember the graveyard being dug up to make way for modernisation.

Re: River Stink
 

I remember the Ball family quite well, Ced used to ping the bra straps of us girls when we went down the fair. Ray, his younger brother married a friend of mine, Angela, But they are now divorced. Ray lives in Blackpool now and owns a shoe shop, call Balls.

Re: River Stink
 

Possibly the two thicker piers were built more substantially because both sit either side of the river stink. The stink could flood like a mighty Amazon at times. Protection against possible erosion or even a weaker base on which they stand. But I don't really know:)

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what ever happened to carol?Is ced still about not seen him for years!

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Now there were never any Eels above the river Calder at Whalley,and the Hynburn Flows into that River System so it must be all to do with the polution pumped in from Blythes chemicals...I would like to go under the tunnel from back of the Bridge Pub under the town centre to the other side...you would need breathing gear though and lights!

now Accystankev the big fish were trout mate!

Re: River Stink
 

I have been through the tunnels from blyths down to the dunk! I thought eels prefered still waters, to running water? they use the running water to get into the mainland and reside in the ponds , lodges and lakes.
ps.....Its also very tasty!

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Any idea how narrow it is in those tunnels? Are they tunnels? I remember we had a debate not long ago about when is a tunnel not a tunnel.

Re: River Stink
 

I 'm getting off my own post here, but I have this photo that shows the rear of the shops in Whalley rd just down from the railway bridge. I took this photo because it has a billboard ad. that says 'Root and Rummage textiles' 83 Whalley Rd. As you may or not know the word 'root' has a different meaning in Aus. But where am I standing? I have to presume that I am on the old site of what used to be Milton St. Also, I seem to remember that I spotted this sign from Bull Bridge, but according to the photo that Mick posted on thread 38 no 1 pic, there is a huge building in the way. Was this building built after '88?

Re: River Stink
 

Did'nt The lady at the Dunkenhalgh, drown herself in the stink a couple of hundred yrs ago. My dad found the body of a lad, in the stink at Clayton near where you cross to go over the fields to Snuffy errod, he said his ears and nose were nibbled off by the rats.

Re: River Stink
 

The huge building would be the tax office Terry. I can't remember the exact year it was built. Funnily enough, after the Accyweb meet up on Saturday Sparky and I decided to walk back to Accy from Church. We past the River Stink as we got into Accy and we can confirm that it still stinks. You don't smell it during the day probably with all the traffic around, but it certainly stinks at night.:D

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The tax office, eh? - now we know where the river got its stink from!

Re: River Stink
 

It shouldn't smell at all. If it does then someone, somewhere is breaking the law. Perhaps you should inform the Environment Agency.

Re: River Stink
 

hiya my name is carole ball i lived at 12 hyndburn rd with my dad and my brothers sadly it dosent even look like the same place any more happy memories of playing on the gasworks all summer long with my best pal dzieni koman. my dad worked for the gasboard who owned the house and he managed the gasworks

Re: River Stink
 

hiya carole its carole ball here what a great web site only just found it im now living in rossendale married with 3 grown up lads of my own i have great memories of hyndburn rd

Hyndburn Road for Carol
 

Hope you recognise this view Carol

Atarah

Hyndburn Road again
 

And here is another view for you

Atarah

Re: River Stink
 

There's two thicker arches one over the river and one over the road, I'd assume they're mainly to align the arches with the river and road

Re: River Stink
 

what has happened to ced?

Re: River Stink
 

River stink brings back loads of memories for me. I remember when I was a kid, we used to play down there and on the big car park where the arndale is now! Does anybody remember. it stretched from behind Whalley Road. I think the Barbers was on whalley road (where the vets is) What was the name of that barber shop!!! right to where boots is now. The cinema was there as well

Re: River Stink
 

I remember the barber on Whalley Road Red, he was called George Bentley!

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Re: River Stink
 

It is bringing back memories, Had a few hair cuts from George Bentleys when I was younger, thanks for providing the name eric.

with regards to the bombed building was it near Burnley Road and at the end of Derby st? I remember an old factory there with smashed windows.

Re: River Stink
 

Re: River Stink
 

The barber on Abbey Street was called George Taylor, I knew them both, Mr Taylor was a friend of my Fathers

Re: River Stink
 

:D Sorry Ernie, called you eric, got morecambe and wise on the brain!

Re: Hyndburn Road for Carol
 

thanks for the photo, is it the old tip?

Re: Hyndburn Road again
 

is this taken from the fairground? (tenament) if so it looks like the gates to the gasworks. thanks for the photo

Re: River Stink
 

when we were kids we used to walk up the river stink from the back of the graveyard/gasworks and we would come out at the bull pub.it did stink and there were all kinds of things including rats around....if you were realy brave you could go the other way and that would have brought you out at milnshaw park just before the lodge but i was never that brave.. i remember that thae used to fill the graveyard with sheep/lambs and by the time i had got home from school they had gone.... to the slaughter house across the road my bedroom window overlooked the graveyard it was always such a nice sight to see them.. ive been a vegie now for 35 years i wonder if it had anything to do with it. ive never realy thought about it before.

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Can anyone tell me if Sharn Hall was an actual hall, a building or a district. A relative was said to have lived at Sharn Hall.

Re: River Stink
 

Something rings a bell that its a property just off Hyndburn Rd (towards Church) - just past where the new Fire Station has been built. Maybe Retlaw, as an ex fireman, can help you on this?

Re: River Stink
 

Look at Shurmer's.
He tells you where it is.
Whether its still there after the building of the
new Fire Station and Lidl's etc, you will have to go and look.
Retlaw

Re: River Stink
 

Are you a civil servant?You asked the same question in another thread:rolleyes::D

I can say this only once:D:D

Re: River Stink
 

This thread has been running since 2004 and I have only just seen it. Fascinating stuff. There does seem to have been some confusion over Croft Street. There was one in Accrington ( close by Bull Bridge) and one in Church. It was close by Nelson Square and looked across to India Street, so both were close to the Stink.
Someone mentioned Nelson Sq being overlooked by Lina Street. This is in fact Emma Street. I took papers there.
I spent a lot of time on Nelson Square. I lived in Persia St. There was a sewage pipe close to the bridge at Henry Street which we used to watch at certain times, knowing that effluent ( we didn't call it that) would be discharged from it. We liked to see the rubber goods bobbing along. Not only did Nelson Square
provide access to the Stink, it was a football and cricket field, a 'dirt track' circuit , a cowboys and Indians area, a courting spot and a place where underground shelters could be explored.
Where the road crossed the Stink at Bull Bridge ( the bridge by the Black Bull pub) was the very centre of Accrington in the very early ( at least medieval) days.
Seeing Atarah's photos of Electricity Street gave me a real thrill.

Re: River Stink
 

I spent a lot of time on Nelson square too great place.How old are you.

Re: River Stink
 

Where the road crossed the Stink at Bull Bridge ( the bridge by the Black Bull pub) was the very centre of Accrington in the very early ( at least medieval) days.

Old Accrington.
New Accrington had its own center

They didn't become Accrington until 1878.

Retlaw.

Re: River Stink
 

I have just remembered that the piece of spare land between Croft St, Church, Bradshaw Street and Wesley Street, looking across to India Street was called The Croft by locals. It was in a hollow alongside Sacred Heart RC School. It may have had allottments or hen pens. 'Croft' means field or piece of land.

Re: River Stink
 

We used to go down to the far end of the car park near the Viaduct and go down to the river and walk along, it came out of a dark concrete tunnel we never went up and the other end where it flowed there always used to be rats, that was towards the cemetery end. I suppose this is the area you are talking about.

At the other end behind the bridge pub, even though it smelt there were trout in there in teh 70's that came down from further up at Warmden Reservoirs which are now drained!

I just keep getting the idea to go into the tunnel end behind the bridge and walk right through to the Arndale Centre side and film it and see what it was like? See if there are any secret doorways into buildings beneath Accrington!

Re: River Stink
 

Been through the length of the Hyndburn from Cross St to the bottom of Castle St many times with the Fire Brigade. Before they built that so called new maket there was an entrance in the middle where we could lift a man hole cover and go down from there, the entry was in two stages, with a platform leading down to the river. Theres not much to see, but I suggest you put you wadders on, its deep in places.
Retlaw

Re: River Stink
 

It sounds like a dangerous idea to me.

Re: River Stink
 

More like an understatement!!! I am daft at times but not enough to try a bimble down the stink even with the right gear on.

Re: River Stink
 

Further to what I put in a previous post about the culverted part of the river Hyndburn, it starts in Cross St/Grange Lane continues under Cross St, then down Duke St Back, under the Commercial Hotel, across little Blackburn Rd, then under where the clock used to stand at the corner of Peel St for about 50 yards, then it veers left under the outdoor market, across Broadway, under the Arndale and Car park and carries on then fairly straight to the Bull Bridge end.
There are no secret doorways, but there are a number of drains leading into it which can gush there contents out at unexpected times.
What has happened to the entrance that was under the old outdoor market I can't say.
The other part, Woodnook Water that is culverted, runs from behind the old baths in St James St, drops about 12 ft, goes under Paradise St, then under what was the Ritz cinema, turns sharp right down under Grange Lane, then left to meet up with Warmden Water at the end of Cross St.

The reason the Fire Brigade used to train under there was for emergencies, in case some idiot tried to go it alone and had to be rescued.

As Spuggie has said, to venture in there without proper gear is stupid. And there's nowt much to see anyway.

We will probaby read your obit in the Observer.

Retlaw.

Re: River Stink
 

Thank you for posting that.
Lets hope anyone thinking of doing it sees this and takes your advise.

Re: River Stink
 

Thanks for that - but I don't know all the street names. All I recall is the river behind the Bridge Pub were it went into a tunnel then as far as I understood it, it came out at the other end of the carpark in Accy Town Centre out of a very well made concrete tunnel.

I wouldn't actually go down there - it was a mere fantasy. I suppose there are town plans that show the exact course of the river under the town!

It must have been cleaned up these days though and the source of it's name - "Stink" no longer relevant?

We used to fish for trout in the stream from Warmden Reservoirs down passed Broadoak, caught many trout there in the 70's and eaten them - very tasty!

Re: River Stink
 

Didn't the smell have something to do with the paper mill at Rishton:confused:

Re: River Stink
 

Eh. :confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

Retlaw.

Re: River Stink
 

....or maybe it had something to do with this:

CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: GWILYM GAMES: The Strange Case of the Mutant Toadman of Accrington

:)

Re: River Stink
 

You are probably right .... :D Maybe the Mutant Toadman could be persuaded to post on AccyWeb ... :cool:

Re: River Stink
 

The source of the River Hynburn came from Warmden Reservoirs and ran down to Broad Oak Factory's - I don't know if there was another subsidary joining it. But as it ran through the factory's chemical waste was dumped in it some smells like rotten eggs. THis is where the smell came from - I don't know about Rishton probably more was added to it as it went down the river!

Re: River Stink
 

The sources of the Hyndburn have already been dealt with in http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...tink-2134.html
Besides its main sources of the Warmden and Woodnook Water quite a number of small streams which are no longer visible joined those two both before and after it became the Hyndburn, there is a lot of run off under Water St, from the Coppice lodges. When the floods closed Water St, Avenue Parade and Melbourne St in the sixties, we could hear some of the culverts collapsing.
All the main polution came from Broad Oak Print Works and the Turkey Red at Baxenden, which was diverted round the factory's in Bath St and Victoria St by the big iron pipe kids play on up Priestly Clough.

Retlaw.

Re: River Stink
 

Cheers Retlaw...
Yes I realise that Ardenhall stream ran into it there were no trout there ever! Priestly Clough also was troutless and I never caught a fish in that poluted water. But there were plenty of trout in the Broad Oak stream and as I said I caught and ate many of them. There was also trout in the main stream that came off the moors above Oswaldtwistle that would have ended up in the Hynburn!

Eels I wonder if there are any Eels in there, there wern't any in the 70's! Also last time I was up North I noticed that the River Calder at Altham had anglers along it's banks! Back in the 70's I think the Calder was fishless! Due to industrial pollution from various sources!

Re: River Stink
 

My dad worked at Threebrooks mill next to Tinker Brook.
During post war rationing he often brought trout home.
He taught my son how to 'tickle' them

Re: River Stink
 

I think I tickled trout only a couple of times. Mainly used rods with worms or maggots!

Re: River Stink
 

My brother and I spent lots of happy hours playing on Nelson Square, Gaty and Milnshaw Parks during the early sixties. Ray used to go down every day for a game of footie.

My Nan used to shout us from the top of Holland Street would you believe and we would run home.

Happy days xx

Re: River Stink
 

There were fish in the twin lodges behind Broad Oak factory, there was also a smaller a smaller pond which we used to catch tiddler in, we called it the breeding pond, there was all sorts of pond wild life in there, but it was dangerous, I once tried to measure the depth of it, it only appeared to be a few inches deep but I couldn't touch the bottom with a 6 ft cane.
When they started to fill the lodges in we went up and collected a gallon of frog spawn, and other creatures and tipped it in the pond in the garden, their off spring come back every year to breed. Don't know where they go during the cold weather, but by the end of March they will be coming back, always from the South, I go out every night around March with a torch looking for them, pick them up and put them in the pond, even found them on our front door step. Usually get between 20 & 30 every year.

Retlaw.

Re: River Stink
 

With all these frogs around, I'm surprised no one has ever opened a French restaurant in Accy.

Re: River Stink
 

Yeh I remember there were various lodges around Broad Oak. There was the big one next to the sports field, I think you had to have a licence to fish on it. Then there were the two top ones either side of a road, you had to have licence for them as well, that had a few trout in but got fished out and not replaced! one of them and course fish in the others they got drained eventually in the early 80's I don't know why? But then there was a couple of really small ones between Broad Oak and Manchester Road and I remember caught a couple of big perch in there one year, big for the size of the pond. I remember sometimes the frogs came out when there was still snow on the ground up at Ardenhall lodges that was years back now. You must have a big garden to fit 30 frogs in it

Re: River Stink
 

The french frogs are different species, much bigger legs. I don't know if you can eat the English Common Frog, probably illegal now as there arn't that many left. But you can eat snails...


Gather them up and put them in a sealed bucket with cabbage for about 2 days this cleans them out. You then boil in a pan simmer for a few mins and you have a lovely snail meal!:D