page_title: Leeds and Liverpool Canal
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Leeds and Liverpool Canal / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: World War II pillbox on the Leeds and Liverpool canal, in Hoscar, Lancashire, England.
context_page_description: The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool.
  Over a distance of 127 miles, it crosses the Pennines, and includes 91 locks on the main line. It has several small branches, and in the early 21st century a new link was constructed into the Liverpool docks system.
context_section_description: The canal suffered some damage during the Second World War. It was breached when a German bomb fell on it in Bootle. The canal in West Lancashire was part of Britain's defensive plans against invasion. Along the canal there were tank traps, bunkers and blockhouses. Some buildings such as barns and pubs along the canal were fortified. There are still some remaining concrete pillboxes and brick built blockhouses.
  Trade continued on the canal until the 1980s. Coal was shipped to Westwood Power Station, in Ince in Makerfield, until 1972 and corn to Ainscough's Mill in Burscough until 1960. The last horse drawn barge was Parbold. Freight returned in 1973 (coal from Castleford to Skipton), then grain was carried between Liverpool and Manchester from 1974 for some years. The last intensive use of the canal for freight was carriage of effluent from Esholt to Leeds (Knostrop) between May 1978 and December 1979, and aggregate from Trent wharves to Shipley - this ceased in 1982. The section of canal between Aintree and the Liverpool terminus was classed as remainder in the review of the waterways and therefore only receives enough maintenance to keep it structurally sound.
caption: A concrete pillbox by the canal
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix F11", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Digital Camera FinePix F11     Ver1.01", "Image DateTime": "2007:11:07 15:53:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "294", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1360", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9014", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Landscape Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:11:07 15:53:32", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:11:07 15:53:32", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "639/100", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "31/5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "8", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2848", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2136", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1212", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "3703", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "3703", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}