We raced down the sixteen Marple Locks this morning. With additional crew members one person can go on ahead to get the next lock set, so there is no waiting. We also got off to an early enough start the the first boat we met coming the other way was in the bottom lock.

At the bottom of the locks is the Marple Aqueduct.

You can’t really see how impressive it is when you are on it, but you do get a good view of the equally impressive railway viaduct.

Sitting in a meadow by the side of the canal there was a fox.

Sorry, I only had the point and shoot camera handy, and I was driving the boat at the time so the picture quality is not that great. After he watched us go by he turned around and trotted into the wood.

The canal was still mostly fringed with trees or suburban backyards, though there were some industrial outcroppings.

I got all excited thinking that this might be an enormous pickled onion factory, and was sniffing for the wafting aroma of shallots and malt vinegar, but it turns out that pickling and passivation are processes applied to stainless steel to make it less likely to corrode. Maybe the building on the left is the onion factory.

We moored at the end of the Peak Forest Canal, in Ashton-under-Lyne. Why don’t they just write it Ashton? The old warehouse across the canal basin from us has been converted into an industrial museum. They have a collection of random industrial equipment.

This for instance is a clog iron bending machine. I think this confirms that we are definitely in the North.

Upstairs they have replica historic homes and shops.

The chippie also sold tripe.

Yep, it doesn’t get much more Northern than that. Slut is tripe made from the second stomach of a cow. Now you know. The OED doesn’t know this, but The Complete Cow-Leech Or Cattle-Doctor by John C. Knowlson (1820) has the vocabulary you need. Apparently the bovine digestive system is just like the great temple at Jerusalem.

With the 200th anniversary coming up the museum had a special exhibit devoted to the Peterloo Massacre.

This was the Kent State of the 19th century. Cavalry armed with swords charged a huge gathering of peaceful political protesters. About nineteen people were killed, including women and children, and many hundreds were injured.

The protesters wanted the right to vote…

… and the repeal of the corn laws – that is removing tariff barriers on the import of food.

One bit of the exhibit caught my eye.

“Betsy Ludd, a radical man dressed in women’s clothes…” and the picture with the caption THE LEADER of the LUDDITES. I’d always thought the Luddites were inspired by Ned Ludd, though he was a largely mythical figure. Google knows nothing of a radical cross dresser called Betsy Ludd. Wikipedia says that picture is in fact of Ned Ludd, without bothering to explain why he was dressed in drag. I am confused. Perhaps Ned Ludd called himself Betsy when he put on a frock. Perhaps he went to demos dressed like that in the mistaken hope that nobody would beat up a drag queen. Perhaps the Marvel Cinematic Universe is doing the industrial revolution next and has decided Ned has to transition.

It’s all too much for me. Let’s finish with a picture of the jam that for most of the 20th century was promoted by racial stereotyping.

There’s a whole display devoted to the Robertson’s Golliwogs. As racial stereotypes go they were pretty positive ones. The golliwog badges included an astronaut, a policeman, a judge, and a viking… but history moves on. After they dropped the gollies in 2002, Robertson’s had a brief flirtation with Matilda and the Big Friendly Giant, but is now promoting Paddington Bear. Don’t trust them, Paddington! They are fickle. In another year or two they will have thrown you overboard and taken up with Pikachu or Buzz Lightyear.