Radcliffe-Bury Canal Walk

 

While in my hometown, Bury (Lancashire), over summer, I did the Radcliffe-Bury canal walk twice, both times early in the morning.

At the Radcliffe end, it looked like a good clean-up operation had been done, and the canal looked great in the sunshine.

As I walked along, I saw quite a few ducks, moorhens etc. on the water:

The highlight of which was seeing a swan with its young:

But not long afterwards, I saw a sign on the other side of the canal petitioning for the saving of the Radcliffe-Bury Canal greenbelt:

Word has it that Bury Council is after destroying this beautiful greenbelt land, but I've been out of Bury so long, I don't know much about this topic.

Unfortunately, the poor creature below was motionless, and seemed to be dead:

During the walk, I passed under a few bridges:

In stretches, the water was badly overgrown with weeds:

But still, there were some interesting things to see:

Have just read that the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal was built between 1791 and 1808, during a Golden Age of Canal Building.

Interestingly, I've also just discovered that passenger boats used to run on the Canal, including the Bolton-Bury stretch which never had any locks.

Sadly, the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal seems to have fallen into general disuse in the early 1960s.

But, at least, stretches of it now provide an interesting post-industrial walk.