Pluto

This is how boats got passed Bulk Road Aqueduct when it was rebuilt and enlarged to improve access to Lancaster from the M6.

Could be Heath Charnock, but difficult to identify. Another possibility is just before Rose rove by the A679.

This looks like the bottom of Johnsons Hillock,

The locations are Rishton, Rishton, Finsley Gate, Greenberfield, Greenberfield, and Foulridge Tunnel western end.

They are not fitted to many locks on the Wigan flight, mainly those where subsidence has made it difficult to maintain an accurate fit for the mitre. Without having a stop, the top of the mitre could 'rub', that is seat slightly differently each time the gates were closed, causing the sharp edges of the mitre to wear and thus cause leakage. In the worst scenario, a boat could hit the gates and cause them to overlap and fail, as did happen once with Wharfe on the 9th lock on the Wigan flight. Striking posts, where the outer end of the balance beam rested against a vertical post when the gates were closed, were used for the same reason, though they were removed, in the 1960s I was told, after someone got caught between the beam and the post. The Rochdale locks were badly built from the beginning, if the canal company minutes are to be believed, so such supports were used extensively on that canal. However, it could just be that the engineer at some point thought they were a good idea in restricting wear on the mitre, and thus extending gate life.

I seem to remember doing my ONC using Imperial in 1964/65, and changing to metric whilst doing my HND, 1966/69, and then having to go back to Imperial when I then went to university.

This is one of very few spillways built on the towpath side of the canal, as they are usually on the 'higher' side of the canal, possibly to reduce the chance of a major release of water should they fail. There is also no defined water course being crossed by the canal here, the nearest being a short distance in the Wigan/Leeds direction, as seen in the earlier, 1802, of the two surveys of the area. The other survey is from 1827. Note that there is no bridgekeepers house in the 1802 survey. These were built after the canal opened, Handcock's Bridge at Aintree being named after the first bridgekeeper. He was installed after the Earl of Derby complained after being held up by boatmen leaving the bridge open.

Sorry, I'll try to remember where I was in the future, but I do work to 18th century tolerances. A couple more photos of the warehouse after the fire, and of the water wheel before restoration.

There are some records of A&CN boatmen surviving, such as the disciplinary one below for a tom pudding tug man. Northern boatmen wore a variety of work clothing, as seen in the photo of L&LC men on steamers at Bingley. The gansey, see http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/Gansey pattern.pdf, was worn at some time by most boatmen, and one or two are doing so in the photo. The gansey was worn by boatmen on all wide northern waterways.

The L&LC steamers had all the main controls on the top of the engine room, so more easily accessible to the steerer. However, the 1884 Traffic Report to the L&LC Traffic Committee states with regard to steamer boatmen: Varley, who is sent after the boats when they get into any difficulty, says 'It is the men getting drunk which breaks the steamers down as much as anything else'. As to the discipline at present exercised over the men, Varley says that we are short of men, and that the men who have been fined and dismissed have to be taken on again. The younger Clapham states that Mr White's rules for the management of the engines are not attended to by the men. Mr Wilkinson states that the boilers are never properly cleaned, that the present so-called 'cleaning' is a mere apology. That in consequence they are used up much before their time and the consumption of fuel largely increased.

Have you noticed that the top gates in the Grindley Brook photos are steel. The cost of gates was under discussion by BTC engineers 1959/60, and a number of different types were proposed. These included wooden gates which were glued, rather than having steel plate strengthening to the frame, as well as steel gates. I have enlarged the photo with the gate/balance beam you mention.

A couple of photos I took in 1971 showing the boats sunk at Dukinfield.

On a more serious note, for me it has opened up who areas of new canal research by the digitisation of historic books. Searching for canal-related terms brings up all sorts of old books which you would normally never think of looking for, besides making it possible to find foreign language books which have interesting facts, previously unknown by UK historians, about 18th and 19th century English canals.