canal knowledge

While Paula was attending an academic conference on the use of virtual reality in education in Manchester recently, I spent the two days that she was otherwise occupied exploring the city’s canals. I described how I followed the Rochdale Canal westwards from Oxford Street in The Writing on the Fence, and here is what happened when I returned to my original starting point and started to follow the canal eastwards.

But first here are some photos that I took during my initial excursion to the west:

The second photo shows a cast iron Victorian railway bridge.

And this is a view of Oxford Street from the west:

Buildings crowd around the canal in the city centre (this photo was taken east of Oxford Street, looking west):

…and there are quite a few tunnels to negotiate:

In fact, it is necessary to return to street level before reaching Piccadilly Station, and it is only east of this point that it is possible to follow the canal uninterrupted.

The following photograph, taken from a footbridge across the canal, illustrates the first decision I had to make about where to go:

I initially followed the walkway on the far side of the water from right to left, but it led only to a flight of stairs, and these led to a locked gate, so I had to turn back and find a way to cross the canal. I eventually reached the camera position via the wide path on the right.

Here is another view of this location, taken from the wide path:

The Rochdale Canal crosses from left to right, and this photo shows what I believe to be the start of the Ashton Canal. Note the Canada geese in the tunnel—these birds are very common hereabouts, and I’ve included more pictures below.

But I saw only two swans:

The solitary cygnet is so small that you may not notice it.

In addition to the canals, there are basins where narrow boats can be moored. I took the next photo for its reflections, and I want to emphasize that despite its appearance, I have not manipulated the colours!

And here are some more photos of Canada geese on the Rochdale Canal (the first photo was taken from a point overlooking a basin in the vicinity of the Deansgate locks, west of Oxford Street; the other two were taken several miles to the east):

The group in the first photo—two adults and six goslings—is obviously a single family, while that in the third appears to be taking a more collective approach to parenting.

On that first afternoon, I discovered a location with dozens of graffiti, which will be the subject of my next post, but I wasn’t able to photograph everything I wanted to there because my camera had run out of power. And I couldn’t find the location the following day!

On that following day, I continued beyond the open area where I’d taken the photos of geese above, but although I thought I recognized various landmarks—like the sign that advised cyclists to dismount where the towpath passed under a low bridge—I eventually came across another location with spectacular graffiti and knew that I hadn’t passed this way before.

However, I continued to the next point where I could return to street level. I noticed a sign that read ‘Ashton Canal ½ mile’ and decided to follow it. But after more than half a mile with no sign of a canal, I decided to turn back. I doubled back as far as what I have identified above as the start of the Ashton Canal and decided to see where that led. I eventually came close to Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium before finally turning back, and here are three photos that I took on this canal.

This is a short tunnel, with a lock gate at one end, close to the start of the canal:

And here are a couple of general views of the Ashton Canal:

Finally, here are two photos of a lock on the Ashton Canal, the first looking east and the second looking west. The first photo shows a small plaque with the date ‘1997’, which was probably when the canal was restored (it is likely to have been derelict when I was a student in Manchester in the 1960s). The house on the right in the second photo would once have been the lock-keeper’s cottage.

We weren’t due to leave Manchester until 5pm on the third day, so I spent the third day showing Paula what I’d discovered in the course of my wanderings. In addition to the two locations for graffiti that I’ve already referred to above, this included a third, equally spectacular graffiti location on the Ashton Canal.