John Longbotham was the canal engineer put in charge of the building of the Leeds Liverpool. As you can imagine this was a bit of an interesting one given it was necessary to team up Lancastrians and Yorkshiremen! To try and deal with this in a balance way they stare at both side of the country. In Lancashire that , for some reason, was not at Liverpool but was at Haskayne. One of the few cuttings through a hill, maybe they wanted the stone.
We went through Halsall today and we love the memorial to the men who built the canal . The Navvy , by Thomas Dagnall, is in Millstone Grit and is brilliant. Whilst most people believe that the navvies were all Irish this is probably not true, most were local men after a job. It was only later that more Irish men appeared. The work was undertaken by small contractors and few records survive to be absolutely sure.
