​HTC Alfa photographed in Liverpool. Its a real shame that the view of this particular dock is now obscured by the enormous steel beam which is now a permanent resident here.
 
She was built by Taizhou Sanfu Engineering Limited in 2013 as Yard Number sf110101 and is 189.99m long with a 32.19m beam and 12.81m draft.
 
GT = 32,967 & DWT = 56,601.
 
Hold capacity is 71,634m3.
 
She has a MAN B&W 6S50MC-C8 marine diesel engine (12,889bhp/ 9,480kW) giving a service speed of 14.2 knots.
 
MMSI – 538004711
REG - MH, Majuro
IMO - 9635614
Call Sign -  V7YQ7
Genaral Cargo Ship
Built – Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering, Taizhou, CN
Yard No. – sf110101
L 189.99m W 32.29m
GT 32967
Year - 2013
Liverpool

Pocklington Canal in Yorkshire photographed on 15 January 2015.

The top photograph is of one of the bridges crossing the canal. This carries Church Lane which connects the villages of Melbourne and Thornton over the canal. The other pictures were taken from the bridge. 

From the bridge looking East.

From the bridge looking West.

The first proposals to build a canal to Pocklington were made in 1765 when there were plans for a canal from the Humber Estuary to Wholsea with two branches from there, one to Weighton and the other to Pocklington.

A second assessment of the project was made in 1767 and a third in 1771 at which time the Pocklington Branch had been dropped. In 1777 a new plan for a canal from the River Derwent to Pocklington was considered and approved but no further action was taken.

Further debate occurred in 1801 and a number of routes were surveyed but again the plan was dropped

Finally, in 1812 Earl Fitzwilliam employed George Leather Jr. to survey a proposed route. At the time, both Leather and his father were working for the Earl on a navigation and drainage scheme for the upper River Derwent.

The suggested route started at Sutton Lock on the River Derwent but Leather found this route to be problematic and proposed an alternative route. He started surveying in 1813 but became il, and the work was not completed until June 1814.

A Bill was put before Parliament which became an Act on 25 May 1815. This authorised the newly formed Pocklington Canal Company to raise £32,000 by issuing shares and £10,000 by subscriptions from the shareholders or by mortgaging the works. A management committee was elected at a shareholders meeting held on 19 June 1815 and all the money had been pledged by 7 July 1815. Leather acted as engineer during the construction work

The canal was started from the Derwent end, so that sections could be brought into use as they were completed. Bad weather prevented Leather from completing the work by the end of 1817 as originally planned and the canal eventually fully opened on 30 July 1818.

The canal was sized to allow vessels known as Humber Keels which operated on the River Derwent to use it.

The Humber Keel was a type of sail craft used for inshore and inland cargo transport on the Humber Estuary and surrounding rivers and waterways during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Keels were constructed to a variety of sizes. They had strongly built hulls with a bluff bow, were steered by a tiller, and were designed to work in shallow waters so that they could be used on the inland waterways connected to the River Humber. By the 19th century most of the hulls were built of oak, and the design was later copied by steel replacements. In the 20th century, steam and diesel engines replaced sail and with grants available to convert sailing vessels to mechanical power all of the sailing keels had disappeared by 1949. One advantage of the design was the ability to sail very close to the wind which was essential on the narrow waterways on which they plied. They were also very manoeuvrable and a single person could handle one on narrow and quiet waters. Stability was aided by a huge pair of leeboards since the vessels did not have a central keel and the small topsail was used when they were navigating the canals and rivers.

The canal rises by around 31m as it travels the 9.5 miles from the River Derwent to Pocklington. Pocklington Beck supplies most of the water for the canal. The paddle gear on the locks was fitted with fixed handles when the canal opened but these were replaced by removable ones after incidents where the locks were emptied by unauthorised people. A house was built for the lock-keeper and collector of tolls and Mark Swann was appointed to the post. The house was located close to the top lock.

Tolls raised just £623 in 1820 as there was competition from goods travelling by road. However in 1822 a packet boat was bought as a joint venture by several tradesmen and a weekly service to Hull began. Traffic consisted of coal, lime, manure and general merchandise travelling up the canal to Pocklington, while corn, flour and timber traveled in the opposite direction. Traffic rose gradually during the 1820s, and in 1830 a dividend of 3 per cent was paid to shareholders. Average receipts from tolls were around £1,400 per year, which allowed the dividend to be around 3 per cent until the late 1840s.

In 1848 the York and North Midland Railway bought the canal for £17,980. To minimise costs little more than token maintenance was carried out by the railway company. In May 1850, Swann, who had been collecting tolls since the canal opened, was dismissed. (When I read this I felt quite sad, the poor guy had worked and lived on the canal for 32 years. I hope he was okay and  found somewhere else to live and work although with the downturn in traffic he was probably not surprised and hopefully was prepared). Locks were repaired in 1851, after which the railway company received a suggestion from landowners that the canal should become a drainage ditch, with a tramway running along the bank for the carriage of goods. Although the idea was well received, no further action was taken. When the York and North Midland Railway was taken over by the North Eastern Railway in 1854 the new owners of the canal followed a similar policy of low maintenance. Traffic declined from 5,721 tons in 1858 to 901 tons in 1892, by which time most boats terminated at Melbourne near to where I took my photograph and could only be partially loaded due to the channel being badly silted. 

​Despite the difficulties, trade on the canal continued until 1932 and the canal remained passable until 1934. 

​Padgate Rectory photographed on 15 January 2017. This building which was built in 1840 sits just to the North of the church. The building was originally T shaped but has clearly had a number of additions over the last 177 years which although probably required to enable the building to function do not look great. At the time of writing a new replacement vicarage/rectory is being built on land next door which will probably lead to the sale of this building

​Padgate Rectory’s Coachhouse also photographed on 15 January 2017. This was also presumably built in 1840 at the same time of the rectory. It is located in the grounds of the original rectory just inside the perimeter wall and close to the road.

​The building has two floors, the upper was probably a hayloft/store The ground floor was split in two, the large gates formed the entance to where the coach would be kept, the smaller door opened into a stable with two stalls for horses. On the rear of the building is a chimney stack. I like this building, you do not see many coach houses. 

Print photographed in a pub on the Isle of Wight in 2015. Looking at the type of warship depicted in the present I think that the print dates to the early part of the 20th Century, possibly a bit earlier.

​Christ Chruch Padgate photographed at lunchtime on 13 January 2017.
 
The church was built in 1838, a chancel and vestry were added in 1882 and a new porch was built in 1992.
 
The building is constructed from red/ brown brick and has a slate roof. 

Fishing village near Bang Pu, Thailand photographed on 27 July 2016. We stopped briefly here before visiting the nearby Phraya Nakhon cave. 

​Narwa photographed loading in Liverpool Docks on 4 January 2017. Shortly after I took this photograph and after completing loading she left Liverpool bound for Montoir in France.
 
She was completed by Volharding SY in The Netherlands as Yard Number 647 in 2009. Overall she is 14.4m long with a 14.4m beam and 6.04m draft. Her keel was laid on 25 October 2007, she was launched on 28 April 2008 and completed on 13 January 2009.
 
GT = 4,225  DWT = 6,157 and NT = 2,341.
 
Her main engine is a single MAK 9M25C 4 stroke single acting 9 cylinder diesel engine (2971kW/4039hp @ 750rpm).Service speed is 12 knots with a maximum speed of 13 knots.
 
She has two holds with a maximum capacity of 8,500m3, she can also carry 256 containers.
 
MMSI –  3052620000
REG – AG, St.Johns
IMO - 9454814
Call Sign – V2DN2
General Cargo Ship
Built – Volharding SY, Foxhol, NL
Yard No. - 647
L 114.4m W 14.4m
GT 4225
Year - 1009
Liverpool,  4 January 2017

Holy Trinity Church, Bolton photographed on 29 December 2016.

Holy Trinity was designed by Philip Hardwick and built between 1823–25. A grant of £13,924 (equivalent to £1,030,000 in 2015) was given towards its construction by the Church Building Commission. 

The church stands at the end of Newport Street, near the former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Station. The church is faced with ashlar stone and has a slate roof. It is a Gothic Revival building and has a seven-bay nave, a shallow chancel with a vestry to the east and a west tower.

The tower is in four stages with angle buttresses, it has a west doorway, above which is a pair of tiered windows. The third stage has clock dials, and in the top stage are three-light bell openings. The summit has pinnacles at the corners and at the midpoint on each side. The nave bays are separated by buttresses. These are topped by pinnacles which are linked by an embattled parapet. In each bay is a three-light tiered window. The chancel has a  lancet window on the north and south sides, and a nine-light east window.

The ceremony of laying the corner-stone took place on 7 June 1823, the stone being laid by the Rev. Canon Slade, Vicar of Bolton. It was consecrated three years later on 11 September 1826.

The area around the church was originally considerably different to what it is today.

The church currently sits on the corner of two very busy main roads, to the West is a supermarket and retail park, to the North is a bus and railway station and to the East are railway lines. In 1826 the church was on a rise known as "Sweet Green." "a place of fragrant gardens and picturesque houses," as apparently noted by a contemporary writer. Immediately facing the west door was a thriving orchard and garden, the adjoining busy main road was a pleasant deep hollow of pastureland.

At that time the builders did not consider on the erection of a big new railway station which later was to cut away a large slice of the churchyard which was ultimately closed in 1856.

There is a story told of the Rev. M.F.Barton, who was vicar from 1849 - 1856. It is said he used to ride to church on a horse, tether it to the railings outside the church and enter the church and conduct the service still wearing his spurs.

The clock on the East side of the tower is considerably higher than those on the other sides. The reason for this is said to be due to a wealthy local resident who insisted on the clock on this side being elevated so that he could see the time from his bedroom windows. I imagine this persons house was located where the railway now runs or perhaps a bit further east where there are a number of other retail units alongside the main road into Bolton.

On 26 September 1915 at 12.20 am a German Zeppelin attempted to bomb Trinity St Station. The bomb fell short of its mark and crashed right through the roof of Trinity Church on the south side, fortunately the bomb did not explode but did leave a hole in the roof and a great deal of damage in its wake.

In 1919 the bells were recast and re-hung, but within a few days of their consecration a disastrous fire damaged the tower and completely ruined them. 

The church was declared redundant on 1 July 1993 and has now been converted into apartments.

Narwa photographed on 4 January 2017 loading in Liverpool Docks.

Not the best picture but I did take it with my phone, through a gate at some distance and the light was not great.

This was my first visit to Liverpool for some time and on my way home I could not resist driving to the river wall on Princes Dock and along the dock road to see any ships on the river or in port. 

There were many ships and vessels which I had seen before but some potential new ships to add to the list were Narwa (General Cargo Ship IMO 9454814), V Due  (IMO 9698202), Particia V ( Bulk Carrier, IMO 9453054), Sammy (Bulk Carrier, IMO 9582491), Arina (Genaral Cargo Ship) IMO 8806163), Wes Nicole (IMO 9198604) and Novatrans (IMO 8915756)

Arina left port shortly after I saw her and bound for Newport UK and after loading Narwa left for Montoir in France.

​Bulk carrier Hosanger photographed in LIverpool docks early evening on 5 March 2015.
 
She was built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in Okpo. South Korea in 1998 as Yard Number 1087 and is 213m long with a 31m beam and 12m approx. draft.
 
GT = 37150 and DWT = 50211.
 
Hold capacity is 67,492m3.
 
Container capacity is 2,148 teu.
 
She has a MAN B&W 6560MC (15640ps @ 102.7rpm) marine diesel engine giving a service speed of 12.3 knots and a top speed of 16.0 knots.
 
Up to 2008 she was called Hosanger Star.
 
MMSI – 563495000
REG – SG, Singapore
IMO - 9081810
Call Sign -  9VAW8
Bulk Carrier
Built – Daewoo HI, Okpo, KR
Yard No. - 1087
L 213m W 31m
GT 37150
Year - 1998
Liverpool,  5 March 2015