Blogtober 2023 : Day 10
The dog and I have been back to the Nine Arches in Earlestown (Sankey Valley) for the first time in aaaaages. I’m not quite sure why we haven’t been for such a long time – and the first thing that I noticed as we walked towards the arches was that Something seemed to be going on.
Can you see Something in the distance too?
As we got closer, it became a bit more obvious.
I thought it might there might be some structural repairs going on – it was opened in 1830, after all, and that’s a pretty long time ago!
I wasn’t sure if the path would be closed but decided to keep walking as far as we could so that the dog would at least get something of a walk before we might have turn back, and also because I am very nosey and wanted to see what was going on 🙂
I think the scaffolding makes the arches look even taller!
I couldn’t see any contractors loitering close enough to the path for me to interrogate ask them about the works but another dog walker told me that it’s restoration work and when I looked it up on the internet, there’s been Council approval given to remove the graffiti, cut down the vegetation growing around the base, redecorate the iron grilles and remove the calcite deposits that have built up from water running through brickwork. It’s a big job and you can see from the scaffolding that the work is needed on all of the arches.
There wasn’t any obstruction to the dog and I getting along the path so we carried on walking up to the canal. There was a swan family sleeping on the bank …
I kept the dog well away (although he was more interested in the smells in the bushes behind us), said “hello” to the swans and then walked back on a different path so that we didn’t disturb them again.
This path took us right under the arch where work was taking place …
It did feel strange to be able to walk through the middle of a construction site!
Then we walked for a little bit down the temporary road that they’d built for their vehicles…
but the dog preferred being on the grass so we cut across to walk on a path over on the right hand side of this photo.
And despite those heavy clouds, it didn’t rain at all!
guess the time difference is getting me. it’s only 7:20 pm lol.
I would love to see the arches in person. I know nothing about them so I guess it’s time to do some research on them.
see you tomorrow. going to work on Xmas socks now ☺️
I enjoy reading your blog but the photos never show up, just big white blank spaces, is there a reason for this please. Sandra.
I’m not sure why you can’t see them – I found this link when I was searching the internet and maybe there’s something in here that can help? https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000813.htm
you may have to clear your cookies – this came up at the office recently.
well, well. This came up on the local news this week. North West BBC. They had someone scraping arches and talking about how sound it was, how it was built for so much weight but has no trouble with current weightier trains – at least I’m sure it was trains….