John Lynn & Philip Wakerley - Little Lever, UK - Dedicated Benches on Waymarking.com

The bench is in a small viewing area of an old set of locks on the former Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal. The canal opened in 1796 and served local mills and mines. Competition from railways and roads and led to a decline until the canal finally closed in 1962.

A preservation society is trying to re-open the canal for leisure purposes and renovation work has been carried out on some sections. As part of a housing development the builders donated money for an art work and Liam Curtin was commissioned. An old bridge at the top of the locks needed replacing and so it was decided to build the bridge using giant Meccano pieces. A giant meccano set was made by a local fabricator. Each part including the nuts and bolts was scaled up by ten times, ten times longer, ten times thicker and a thousand times heavier.

Just below the bridge this bench faces the old locks and has also been made from Meccano. A plaque on the bench tells us about it.

The Meccano bench in memory of

John Lynn and Philip Wakerley

with money donated by their friends
They were both friends of the canal
and would have enjoyed this view

"Meccano is a model construction system created in Liverpool, United Kingdom, by Frank Hornby. The brand now maintains a manufacturing facility in Calais, France. Meccano consists of reusable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, and high quality plastic parts that are connected together using nuts, bolts and set screws (also known as grub screws). It enables the building of working models and mechanical devices. Although Meccano has always been seen as an engaging education toy, today the brand focuses on promoting engineering and robotics through fun play to support STEM learning." link

Where is this bench located?: Near the top of Petrolee locks on the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal Who is this bench honoring?: John Lynn & Philip Wakerley

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