Steve Haywood wrote: > I think Martin's the man here. But I seem to recall that > sometime in the 70's (?) the land on which the by-wiers were > sited was sold to developers for offices by the old Rochdale > Canal Company.
I assume you're thinking of Rodwell Tower (now 111 Piccadilly), built over the second lock down and the pound above it in 1962. Although the building plunged the area into darkness, and has several concrete columns directly into the water, there was no loss of water area, and I would be very surprised if the construction resulted in the loss of a byewash. I cannot recall any other 1960/70s development elsewhere on the Rochdale 9 which could have resulted in the loss of byewashes, so unless the development happened very much earlier, I suspect the current arrangements are historically authentic. David Mack
