And we found a few surprises. This former mining town certainly isn't the prettiest and there only seems to be one main shopping street plus a sizeable indoor market but as we walked into it over the big River Aire bridge we saw a startling feature - a striking, ultra-modern pedestrian bridge winding across the river above the weir.
So we had to come back that way and what a magnificent structure it is, snaking across immediately over the large, fierce weir. It starts at Castleford Mill where Allinson's pioneered wholemeal flour and where it was produced for over a hundred years until its closure last year. (How many times have we heard that tale?)
The bridge was opened in 2008 and Googling reveals it was centrepiece of a five year community led regeneration project filmed by Channel 4 for the series Kevin McCloud & The Big Town Plan.
It's certainly a great feature and with other things under development for the town like the new library and museum, maybe the place really will be on the up after some tough years.
The concrete chute in the weir which you can see in the photo is a specially devised channel so that fish can get up over the weir for spawning.
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You should have seen the weir last Saturday. If you look at my Waterways of the Humber blog you will see the differences in levels in four days.
p.s I'm Christine Richardson of Richlow as well.
ARH....Memories of Harold Wilson!
Folk complain about Superstores and out of town shopping malls killing the towns but I am none to sure. I believe it is the loss of industry, work, all were community based just like Allisons Flour Mills. Take all those away and you take away a future....and like Harold Wilson & his Burberry, just memories are left. Where the next stop on the 'Tour'
Amazing pictures Christine - I'll put a link in my next blog post
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