Today was a clear, bright day and I happened to be my birthday so we decided on a walk in Manchester. Bob has been urging an exploration of the River Irwell Sculpture Trail for sometime so we agreed to try that.
Getting onto it turned out to be a bit more tricky than we’d expected. There’s always quite a lot of building work in Manchester City Centre and some of this had closed the routes we had planned to take.
Eventually we joined the riverside path at Salford University and Peel Park. In the park there’s an interesting flood marker recalling the floods on the Irwell in November 1866 when it flooded to a height of eight and a half feet. The marker was reused in October 1870 when a slightly smaller flood of four feet and three inches was notched up.
There were a few other sculptures in the park but most of them are further on and we didn’t get far enough to see them today. We carried onto Agecroft Cemetery and then walked back to Pendlebury to catch a bus.
From the Song of Solomon
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
We remember those still struggling in the aftermath of recent floods. The water may recede but challenges remain.
God grant a quiet night
JAL 29.11.2019 River Irwell.