Middlewood Locks

We went for breakfast at InnerWest, this morning, and then decided to walk across to Sainsbury's to do a little shopping for a culinary experiment that the Minx had planned.

Our route took us past Middlewood Locks, which you can see in today's Blip. This was originally a section of the Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Canal. In fact, this was the first set of locks as one left the city, and further along the canal used to run behind our home, where the communal garden and allotments are situated now.

In fact, this section of the canal is truncated pretty much at the far end of my photo, which made me wonder, aloud, just where the water came from that was flowing into the lock. Even the Minx was perplexed and said, mildly agitated, that that question was going to bug her all day.

But just as we walked on, a van pulled up, and on the side it read 'Canal And River Trust'. Well, it was too good an opportunity to miss, so when the chap clambered out of his car, we walked over and asked him to explain the mystery source of the canal water.

You may not be surprised to hear that he was delighted to find this unexpected audience, and he explained how the water is pumped up from further down the canal.

Naturally, he didn't want to stop there and we had an enjoyable ten minutes listening to his canal-based knowledge. And I think the Minx was particularly pleased by his scepticism at the chances of the canal ever being fully reopened and thus robbing her of her allotment.