It was one of those lovely autumnal mornings with mist on the water and fields first thing and then when the sun popped up it was really hot on your back, so with very little breeze a fantastic day for a cruise. We didn't set off until about 1000 as the weather doesn't instill a feeling of urgency at all.
As we cruised down the cut towards Oswaldtwistle a couple of beautiful warehouses were passed. Apparently land owners along the the cut were allowed to build their own warehouse on their land and charge tolls for the use of them on top of the canal tolls. However if the landowner did not construct one for themselves with in a year then the Canal Company were entitled to do so if the wanted to.
A lttle further on was this magnificent building that is real need of some TLC. It was being used by a couple of guys as a sort of junk store, but at least it is being used.
A little further still on was this art work on the wall with a map of the canal.
The canal bends round the William Blythe Chemical Works. It was established here in Church in by the bloke of that name and he had is first patent in 1854. They make chemicals for all sorts of processes such as coatings, purification, print, polymers, pigments and food and feed additives.
Just round the corner from the chemical works was a weed filled basin, but right next to it was a series of beehive ovens. There was Aspen Colliery here that opened in 1869. The coal from the mine was turned to coke to be used in a nearby steelworks and transported there by canal.
The kilns were known locally as the 'fairy caves' and were built when the canal opened here in 1810. There were 3 rows of 9 kilns in the bank. They were buried in earth to give them a bit of strength and to keep the heat in more. Once the kilns had been erected they were heated up slowly for a few days by slowly building a wood fire up with coal. Once up to heat, to prevent cracking, the coal from the pit would be loaded in at the top door. The bottom door would be mostly sealed up to restrict air. After about two or three days the gases had been burnt off. These could be seen burning at night in the sky and emitting a smell of rotten eggs, the fire was put out by closing off the air all together. The openings were then used to spray water on to the coke that had been made, being careful not to cool the actual oven down too much. About 1.5 tons of coal made about 1 ton of coke.
From Church the canal makes a great loop round the head of the valley and it was great to look back and see where we had stayed the night.
On the way from Burnley to Blackburn I have seen several of these structures on the tow path side. I can't realy decide what they are for. I wondered if they were an anti mooring device as the ropes would cross the edge very easily. Please let me know what they are if you can.
The canal weaves it's way through the countryside where there were numerous industries as well as coal mines. There were mills of course but also fire clay works, brick works and quarries. Above can be seen the spoil heap of a quarry and a quay for loading up the barges.
This is all that remains of the coal discharging wharf for Whitebirk Power Station. It was on the offside and taken over the canal to the power station by overhead power station. The power station, otherwise known as Blackburn East was opened in October 1921 and closed in 1976. In the 1980's a retail park was built on the site. The fact that it was once there is given a way by the large transformers and the many lines of transmitter pylons. The coal mainly came the 15 miles from Bank Hall Colliery Burnley.
The Imperial Mill is hanging on by the skin of its teeth. It was built in 1901 by a share subscription. After WWI trade declined and the Bank of England stepped in to rationalise the industry and set up the Lancashire Cotton Corporation. It survived and was later sold to Courtaulds but stopped spinning in 1980. The chimney was demolished but the rest survived despite it being largely unoccupied for about 24 years. The the 'Imperial' is on the engine house, minus a chimney and the copper domes really make it stand out on the skyline.
As we passed the Graham and Brown Wallpaper factory there is the view of this decorated phone box.
Another mill we pass is the Daisyfield Mill. Unusualy this is a corn and flour mill that was opened in 1871 and had the railway lines running through it. Grain was lifted from the barges on the canal to upper floors where originally 10 pairs of stones ground the grain. It was owned by Joseph Appleby and Sons. By 1889 it was a rolling mill and was producing 3000 sacks of flour each week. Ranks bought it is 1928 and finally closed in 1968. It was later used as warehousing and then converted to offices in 1990.
I loved this old stone warehouse, that actually had brick upper works added to it at a later date. I like the small doors for direct access plus the mooring rings and the cast iron rubbing bands to prevent damage to the stonework or catching the boat.
We were hoping to be able to moor at Eanam wharf, not under the canopy but quite close. However there were no rings and the towpath had nowhere to put pins in so we just had to sail by.
We eventually moored at the top of the locks where there were a few rings. After lunch we went for a walk to explore Blackburn.
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