Some puzzles on the L and L

Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:57

I spotted a couple of puzzles on our trip from Ship Bridge to Parbold on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal!

Stone sculpture

This looked as if it had been used as a barbecue or for a bonfire. Now I am asking myself was it used for some sort of ritual or did it seem a sensible place to confine a fire? It rather reminds me of the tide fights I used to have on the beach as a kid. I had great fun building a wall of sand in a ring and then piling on more sand to keep the incoming tide out for as long as possible! So I am christening it "The Tide Fight Sculpture". "Locals" may know better!

Wooden structure

Here again my imagination took off. Was this a Indian tepee of enormous scale and to be covered in canvas? Maybe it was the skeleton of a new "sustainable" dwelling. Perhaps, more prosaically, it was piece of art as the owner of the land had other wooden sculptures dotted around his property. I would like to think that it was all of these three!

After a search I find that the wooden structure above is on Dutton's Farm. Dutton's Farm is part of the Lathom Park Trust and Iron Age and Roman remains have been found there. I wonder then if this is some sort of reconstruction related to these excavations. The adjacent Lathom House was destroyed in the Civil War of 1644 and only the West wing remains.

More sensibly, these two boats were moored in this stretch

They look similar in construction and I think they are posibly both Liverpool Short Boats. Ribble was moored in the same place as it was on our trip down a fortnight ago but I had not seen Mercury before. Mercury is in BW colours so perhaps it is now owned by them and used as a working boat? However I could be wrong on both counts; but why not speculate?