My home is a floating island on more than 2,000 miles of interconnected inland waterways in England and Wales. I enjoyed some meandering diversions, based on talk I had heard along the towpath.
On the waterways, a journey progresses as if you've passed through a portal to a former century, moving at a very different speed from that at which the rest of life is lived.
The subsidence is due to millions of tonnes of coal having been extracted at Ince Moss colliery. Up to a million tonnes of coal a year was dug up in that time.
In Wigan, the canal has sunk, and so has the surrounding land. Hollows called flashes have filled with water and are now full of birds and yachts.
Collection
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