The first of the Marsden locks, and the start of summat that's still going, because the locks have fed the register steady ever since — there were another at 32E that same August, and I've had one balanced on a lock gate as recent as 2026. Left shoe, brown leather, laced, decent condition, sat square on the coping stones beside Lock 42E, up near Tunnel End.
Bright morning, the canal very still. I sat twenty minutes on the stool with the flask, and flask conditions were excellent. Three photographs, and the notebook gives the light the credit, which is fair. April light on still water does half the work for you. Tunnel End is a grand spot to sit whether owt turns up or not, the visitor centre not yet open at that hour and the water coming out of the hill dead quiet.
The note ends 'come back'. I did come back, in August, and the locks paid out again. It's not often you can watch yourself forming a habit on the page, but there it is, 7 April 2018, in the black hardback. A good spot, the locks. That opinion has only firmed up since. The coping stones present a shoe at a useful height an' all, which I've had cause to be grateful for since.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.