Blog for Prestolee

As a first blog post it seems appropriate to explain why I’ve chosen the moniker prestolee.

Whilst I grew up in the northern mill town of Bury, Lancashire, I developed an enduring passion for canals – their history, their restoration, walking or criusing alongside them. The nearest canal was the Manchester, Bury and Bolton Canal – named a really cunning way so that you might even guess where it went. That said there were plans for extensions over to the Leeds and Liverpool near Horwich and near Helmshore, or even more boldly over the penines via Sladen – though these came to naught.

The highlight of the canal must be a location called Prestolee, near Little Lever, and confusingly also known as Nob End. This is where the Bury to Bolton line of the canal which ran on the level met with the line coming up from Manchester. To drop down the side of the valley there were two staircases each of three locks, and to cross the river Irwell, the mighty Prestolee Aqueduct.