leeds @ liverpool canal

[cashman]

i remember when i was a lad(moby dick was a tadpole) the working barges on the canal,used to carry coal,we spent many a summers day down at the swing bridge down off dill hall,can we have a ride mister? jump on the barge and sail away to burnley or further, used to get towards burnley and jump across on a barge going back the other way,i wonder if anyone else used to sail the canal,alas those days are long gone mores the pity,theres not much outdoor fun for youngsters today.

[Alan Gilmartin]

Yes remember it well, but we went in the in the other direction, to church and Rishton, sometimes, up to Whitebirke Power station. Sometimes got another barge back or we would thraw our bikes on the coal heap on the barge and ride home. It was a great day out, the old bargee's told a few dirty jokes and a few old story's of days gone by. By the way if you went around the canal bank and accross the field, it was a good way to get into Enfield Cricket Club for nothing, under the fence.

[cashman]

yeh we went the other wat a couple of times,but always prefered the route to burnley,the old bargees used tell us that it was mainly jobs for the family when we used to ask.shame it was gone not many years later.

[Alan Gilmartin]

anybody got a photo of the swing bridge off dill hall lane,

[jamesicus]

We used to swim in the canal at the start of the straight mile in Burnley (top of Plumbe St. where my Pickering grandparents lived) during the summer months in the late 1930s. The water was pretty contaminated back then -- but not nearly as bad as in the war years and later -- but we didn't care.

[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by Alan Gilmartin

anybody got a photo of the swing bridge off dill hall lane,

If I can manage to remind myself I'll go round and take one. For some reason I do not like going across that bridge other than on foot. I've always had a funny thing about it.