Pluto

Historically, the Liverpool Pool was always well supplied because of the volume of coal traffic from the Wigan area to Liverpool's canalside gas works. The canal company made a significant amount of money from water sales, though most was used for cooling the exhaust from steam engines to create a vacuum, and this water had to be returned to the canal. The warmed water encouraged children to swim in the canal, so it's probably a good job that steam engines are no longer used. Canals have always been an important local source of water as most towns would not have had a piped water supply at the time canals first opened. When the L&LC opened to Blackburn - it's the 200th anniversary in June and the L&LCS will be taking heritage boat Kennet to Eanam on the 19th to commemorate the event - one local brewery was prosecuted for using canal water, though I'm sure it put some body in the beer.

On the short boat Kennet, we currently require those moving the boat to be members of the L&LC Society as it makes insurance easier. The person in charge also requires some sort of official paperwork to show they can steer, which could be thought a bit daft as several members without such paperwork worked professionally on short boats, but that's the delights of bureaucracy for you.

A properly designed hot air engine should work at around 80% efficiency. I don't think much research is being done at the moment, the last real university interest was probably by Dr Organ in the 1980s at Birmingham University.

Once you have such a product, the last thing you should do with it is burn it in the top of a cylinder. Internal combustion is, and always will be, inefficient compared to external combustion where it is possible to design efficient combustion spaces. One of the simplest ways to use such technology is the hot air, or Stirling cycle, engine, a virtually silent and highly efficient way of producing rotating energy. Kept to their simplest form, they are not a responsive engine for rapid changes in speed, but are ideal for boats or generators. They can also be produced using existing manufacturing plant, so why aren't they used. Perhaps because they were first designed circa 1820, and no PR or marketing person would want to promote old technology, even if it is better than what we use now.

The BW Heritage Report which suggests that the buildings next to the road were the oldest is incorrect. Had the compilers consulted my books on the canal, they would have found the details, but they seem to have ignored the standard work on the canal's history. The whole site was built in 1888 to house the stores for the L&LC company's horses as well as veterinary services for sick horses. These services had previously been provided at the delightfully named Tinklepeg Lane stables in central Liverpool. These were demolished during the redevelopment of the canal's terminal basin caused by the construction of the new road, Pall Mall. Weekly deliveries took provender and straw from Burscough to other canal company stables along the canal. The section which has been demolished had stables on the ground floor and a workshop for making horse tackle on the upper floor. This part of the site, together with the canal side house, had been allowed to deteriorate much more than the rest of the buildings, which were used as a canal maintenance yard post-nationalisation, probably from around 1960 when the new yard at Wigan opened. The house was certainly in a very poor condition when I was living at Burscough in the 1970s, with the buildings next to road only marginally better. Although it is a pity that part of this unique canal site has been demolished, the other three sets of buildings surrounding the midden in the middle of the courtyard will survive. These include the entrance house, offices, veterinary hospital, straw store, proven store and warehouse.

In the 1950s, there was a similar sized breach at Keighley Golf Club alongside the L&LC. It was reopened in three weeks. Ah well, that's progress for you!

On the L&LC, boatmen used to step dance whilst steering to keep warm. The introduction of steam engines, and subsequently Widdops, made it easier by providing a regular beat. There is a video of Bill Gibbons, a boatmen who had step danced all his life, performing on PARBOLD when he was 80.

What is now called Granary Wharf is the north side of the old L&LC basin. Rider's Dockyard occupied the eastern section, alongside the river. Originally there was just one drydock, a second being added circa 1840, possibly at the same time as Monks Pit Lock was built to extend the New Basin into the Aire above the weir. This was built just before Wellington Street Station to force the railway to build a viaduct over the canal company's land. The land for the viaduct foundations was leased to the railway and the arches converted into warehousing for the canal. There were some facilities for the carrying trade in the area, such as cranes and stabling, but the main cargoes handled here seemed to have been coal, stone and probably manure. I have never discovered why the area became known as Granary Wharf as grain would probably have been handled in the warehouse on Water Lane. This may pre-date the canal as there is a mounting block for horse riders on the side next to River Lock. Most grain for Leeds would probably have been destined for one of the many water powered mills on the river below the canal anyway. The exact route of the canal in Leeds was not included in the original Act for the canal as they were waiting to see what happened about the proposed Leeds & Selby Canal. If that had been built, the canal would have passed further to the south through Hunslet. A wooden warehouse was also built next to the stone warehouse, and this was used for handling paper for local newspapers. There was a boatmen's mission here, as well as another opposite the A&CN's warehouses lower down the river.

Timber heads are not necessarily extensions of frames, and many wooden wide boats I have looked at have timber heads which are not knees, though they were usually bolted to a knee. Presumably, this makes replacement easier if they are damaged, and structural damage to the hull less likely. Here, the timber heads are just forward of the bulkhead which suggests that they too are an addition to existing framing and not extensions to frames.

The L&LC Society has now leased Kennet from BW, and we took Kennet down to Skipton yesterday, ready for the Festival. We have done quite a lot of work on the displays in the hold, though external paintwork still needs some attention - volunteers required! Kennet will be open for visitors on all three days of the Festival.

There was a more interesting opening bridge alongside, and you can still see the foundations in this photo. It was a two-level railway bridge which carried the Overhead Railway above and the dock railway below. The existing rolling bascule bridge is a Schertzer type which were quite common in docks from the 1880s onwards, replacing more conventional swing bridges, such as the cast iron ones in Albert Dock. They were cast at Haigh, in Wigan, and brought to Liverpool by canal. Similar Haigh cast iron swing bridges survive in Hull, again probably brought by canal and then down the Humber estuary. Returning to Schertzer bridges, a number survive in Birkenhead Docks where Peel have been trying to have them replaced.

If you look at photos of SUC narrow boats, they also did not have roses and castles on the cabin doors. Some seem to have had geometric designs instead. Charlie Atkins told me that there was very little in the way of roses and castles on SUC boats, but that they did have very high quality graining. With carved names on the stern, they followed more in the tradition of northern wide canal boats, with roses and castles being more of a midlands thing, though excluding the BCN.

An interesting photo as it is the L&LC above Leeds Lock, with the northern entrance to Leeds Station in the background. I suspect that it shows one of the Leeds Electric boats which carried coal to Kirkstall Power Station. The canal was deepened here to allow boats to carry around 75 tons. They could also delivered 76.5 tons to the power station on the River Aire above Leeds Station, having passed through the lock under the station, the horse boats working their way across the river on the end of a long line. Leeds Electric became boat owners in 1900, and had boats with names such as Volt, Watt, Gleam, Spark and Cable, though numbers seem to have been used from 1947.

Perhaps if the developers were a bit clearer and open about their plans, rather than hiding details away, then there would be a bit less rumour. When dealing with the public, statements should be clear and concise, which is why politicians and developers often have a difficult time. Also, judging from the police comment, the developers seem to be somewhat behind the times with their layout as this type of comment about estate design has been made by the police for a good few years.

I have used this method when towing an unsteered boat. It keeps the towed boat straight and stops it from catching you up when slowing down. I particular, I used it when towing a wide dumb boat with a wide motor boat where the dumb boat catching up can be a major problem. With wooden L&LC boats, it can result in damage to the prop if you are not careful. When moving two wide boats on my own, it was easier than breasting-up, which I also did on occasion. Good job the L&LC was not heavily used at the time!

I do remember him being impressed with the JP3 in Harry, which with him at the controls could create enough wash to clear anglers from the bank on the Bridgewater. I was more impressed with the way he steered the trip boat Lapwing - he could run her against the edge of the channel to stop passengers rocking the boat without significantly reducing speed.

They are useful if you are away in the wilds of foreign parts as it is the cheapest way to keep those at home in touch. That said, some of the wilder areas I have been didn't have phone coverage, so I had to remain incommunicado. Once was whilst sailing down the River Onega in the north of Russia in inflatables with a group of Russians to find uncompleted navigation works. What was worst, after the third day we ran out of beer and vodka.

Thanks Laurence, just what I wanted.

Having had the starter off to replace the fan belt on Kennet's JP3, it is now not engaging easily - though it wasn't brilliant before. Both gears, starter and flywheel, are unworn, which may not help, but I suspect that it is the distance between flywheel and starter gears which is critical. Can anyone advise as to the correct position/distance?