Tobacco Wharf

So our flat is right next to the Leeds-Liverpool canal, so I have a lot of opportunity to take some pretty lovely photographs. So, a little about this canal...

- The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is the longest canal in Northern England at 127 miles long. It passes through 91 locks with a summit level of 487 feet.
- The Leeds and Liverpool Canal was the first of the Trans-Pennine canals to be started and the last to be completed. The length and the complexity of the route meant that the canal took 46 years to build at a cost of five times the original budget.
- The canal originates from a proposal in 1765 to construct a canal from Preston to Leeds to carry woollen goods from Leeds and Bradford and limestone from Skipton. Prospective backers in Lancashire argued for the canal to start from Liverpool.
- The engineering of the canal is very different from other Trans-Pennine canals. Most of the locks are concentrated in groups with long level sections between. Tunnels and cuttings are avoided where possible with the canal following the contours round bends and loops. In some sections the distance between points by canal is twice the shortest distance. The earliest locks, between Leeds and Bingley, are often grouped together to form staircases of two or three locks. The most spectacular feature of the canal is the five rise lock staircase at Bingley.
- The Liverpool Canal Link extends the Leeds and Liverpool Canal by way of Liverpool's Central Docks and Pier Head to the South Docks, and was opened in 2009 to regular traffic.


Apart from all this information, today was a pretty chilled out day. Thom's day off meant that we could spend some time together, and so we went to see a film at the Plaza Community Cinema...one staffed and run by volunteers to keep the prices down for the people of the area. Great idea, and we enjoyed the film just as much as if we had seen it in a more expensive cinema. A wander down the canal after getting off the train resulted in this shot, I'm sure there will be many more to come.