Not An Area of Natural Beauty

Fiddler's Ferry is a local landmark that can be seen from all around. It sits on the banks of the Mersey.

Fellow Blipper, Snips and Snaps, included it in quite a different shot last week.

Yesterday local blipper, Scootipede, photographed the Runcorn/Widnes bridge from Wigg Island nature reserve. Although Wigg Island is not far away I had never visited there.

It is named after Charles Wigg who started an alkali works there in the 1860s to extract copper from its ore. Later, during the Second World War Mustard gas was produced on the site. All production was closed in the 1960s and the site had significant contamination and had to be cleaned up before opening as a nature reserve in 2004.

Here you have Fiddler's Ferry photographed from Wigg Island.