Liquid Equinox - Rochdale Canal Watershed - Summit, UK - Etched in Stone on Waymarking.com

The folowing details have been extracted from page 7 of this web document describing the regeneration project.

"The canal story is fascinating. The Rochdale Canal was conceived in 1776 when a group of 48 eminent men from Rochdale raised £237 and commissioned James Brindley to conduct a survey of possible routes between Sowerby Bridge and Manchester. The Canal eventually opened in 1804 after ten years of construction to create the first navigable waterway across the Pennines between Yorkshire and Lancashire. Known as the "Everest" of canals, its dramatic construction over a watershed at 600ft using 92 locks was the catalyst for the industrial revolution in the South Pennines. The Canal became a living artery enabling the movement of power, wealth and influence throughout the Upper Calder Valley.

The Watershed

Summit Pound – halfway along Summit Pound there is a watershed sculpture that represents the point where the canal reaches its highest point in its climb over the South Pennines. The poem on the sculpture was created by Andrew McMillan and is called Liquid Equinox. Andrew was one of the South Pennines Poets in Residence in 2011 and describes his inspiration for the poem in the following way; 'I was struck by the idea of equilibrium, or being on the exact centre of things; the notion that any water which falls at that point could run down in either direction – towards the Irish Sea or towards the North Sea. Such precise balance, it seems to me, is rare. I remembered that old myth, the one about being able to balance an egg on its end at the exact moment of the equinox. What if we could do the same with water? What if there was more than one possible direction?'"

The text of the poem is as follows

Watershed
the cusp of something	the fold in the moss-roof
of the hills	shouldering rain either side of this:
heather receding to the brow-line of the canal	underbelly of the land exposed
thin instruments jackdaws call their feet	kneading the moor's split crust
the wall on its knees to drink	the moving silver trolley of the water moored
a sky which runs in each direction	from the upturned spoon of earth
the day balanced on its end	liquid equinox
	Andrew McMillan 2011

Address: The Rochdale Canal Towpath (Nearest access point is the road called Warland Gate End off Rochdale Road (A6033)) Summit UK Website: [Web Link]

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