Just come across your Bimble Videos enjoyed the Stockport one where I live, lots I did not know. What is also a great bonus is the soundtrack by Specs…..
Just found you on TH-cam and enjoying your local knowledge on rides that I do myself. However, I think the Widnes Future Flower metallic sculpture would have been worth a stop and mention on the route you rode from Spike Island up to the Ferry Tavern on the Transpennine route "Out of the mud banks of the River Mersey grows a flower, capturing the wind to create light. 120 perforate galvanised petals gently flutter and glow, lit by 60 low-voltage LED lights. Without the wind, the petals glow in the light of the sun and the sky. With different wind speeds, the lights reach different intensities, resulting in an ever changing and dynamic flower" Keep up the riding.
We were a Widnesian family exiled to Runcorn for the work in the mid 1950s. My dad worked on Wigg Island, though the works was called Randle's rather than Wigg's and I wouldn't eat the balackberries there either. My dad was a pipe fitter whose job it was to install/repair the pipes from the decommissioned Poison Gas plant to the seepage pits where they dumped the left-overs. He said that the pipes and fittings had to be of special material because the effluent was so corrosive it would eat through the joints on ordinary steel. Great series of videos, which I've only just discovered. Brings back lots of memories for this elderly exile. Thanks a lot.
Tried this last Sunday the opposite way round. Panicked a bit finding the track on wigg Island. Very wet and muddy so will try it again in summer. Was a bit worried that I would find a random gate blocking my path, but felt better when I saw two cyclists coming towards me from Moore.
Excellent little channel this pal, and the music just adds to it, so fair play to ya. I'm gonna do the Wiggs Island to Warrington journey on foot at some point.
I really appreciate Bimbles. Relocating from Sefton to Warrington over a decade ago, your videos are informative and entertaining. More power to your elbow!!
Cracking Bimble Kieran ....weve done the complete sankey canal from st helens to runcorn in section s i have to say but great walk ...Regards Frank & Lee .. Lancashire Walks....
Woolyback is a term from Liverpool docks where dockers wore sheepskin coats to harness themselves on building and shifting off docks Liverpool people people also wore wool for building the cathedral also
This is my favourite local route which I often do, I also continue through warringotn over Woolston Weir and then onto the transpenine trail and eventually end up in Manchester so much bimbling to be had!
You can extend the loop into Latchford, through woolston, around birchwood over warburton bridge and back down the 62 all with minimal roads just a bit of country lanes. :)
Nice video, thanks. I wanted to do this route but hadn't done it for years and couldn't quite remember how to get through some sections, watching this really helped. I seem to remember having to squeeze through a fence near Wigg island last time, good to see it's opened up now. Enjoyed the local info too 👍
Again when I was young me and a mate rode to the bridge and over it… from palace fields or the glen sides 😉I’m from brook vale lived in castle fields and family in Southgate too
@ 1.56mins.........That's a good little track that takes you right under the Railway bridge and to the Ship canal. @ 16.41mins....they are glazed brick, not tiles. Great route this, I come down from Sankey Valley park, getting on at Earlstown or Bewsey.
We usually start at spike island towards Warrington on the same route but then come out by the swing bridge, over that towards darsbury, then through more to Runcorn and back over bridge to Widnes.
When they where unloading cotton at the docks, from the Americas, to go to the mills in Manchester, they thought the cotton was wool. Hence the name "wooly back"
Apparently according to my mum who was a Runcornian at low tide you could walk across the Mersey from that point and there were guides across the Mersey who placed canes where it was safe to walk , I personaly not so sure or may be the river's changed
Great video. I've done this loop many times in a slightly different way. I've always given up on the track past Moore nature reserve because of the state of the potholes. Ended up going over Moore Bridge and past the mobile homes, through the linear park, picking up Bridgewater canal into runcorn. Will definitely try the wigg island way.
I have say as being a woolly back myself lol, it may be a term for scab workers brought into the city from surrounding towns to manually load and unload ships in the Liverpool docks; unloading ships, the dockers would carry the woollen bales on their backs, leaving wool on their clothes.
I think it goes back further than that even. I've heard yorkshire men refer to people from Lincolnshire as woolly backs. It probably has multiple meanings.
@@BimblismUK The derivation I heard was that it dates back to the times when the first wool barges started coming down the Leeds and Liverpool canal when, to distinguish them from the coal barges, they were identified as "wolley back'uns"
the name Woolly Back come from the Liverpool docks it concerned the dockers who unloaded the sheep's wool from the ships , they carried it on their backs it may have been peace work so what they earned came from how many fleeces they could unload carrying the loads on there back allowed them to unload more earning more money and with the wealth they escaped the city and moved to the Wirral Birkenhead etc having a cleaner environment to live in so the Wirral peoples came to be known as woolly backs
I'd love to get my metal detector on the mud at widnes but halton borough council don't allow it. Not sure why, stuff will just rot away - nothing will be saved. that said, I bet the mud is thicker now so all the old gold rings and coins will be deep.
@@BimblismUK Helsby Hill is amazing the views from there are incredible and there is an old water tower hidden behind some trees that is visible if you stand in the Quarry car park and there is an old disused railway that is very overgrown at the back of Tesco it connects Helsby to Mouldsworth
Woolyback..,,Nothing to do with sheepskin coats 😮Term was first used to describe people from Wales liking them to sheep. Phrase them spread to other non Lpool areas such as , Wirral, Widnes, Warrington etc 🙏 2024 term is now ‘wools’ not Woolybacks 😅Good to keep you up to date 😅
If I had a pound for every explanation someone gave me for the term "woolyback" I could retire tomorrow. People in Hull call people in Grimsby Woolybacks. I think it goes deeper. I was wrong in the video but I also think you might be wrong. It requires special research. :)
Just come across your Bimble Videos enjoyed the Stockport one where I live, lots I did not know. What is also a great bonus is the soundtrack by Specs…..
Just found you on TH-cam and enjoying your local knowledge on rides that I do myself. However, I think the Widnes Future Flower metallic sculpture would have been worth a stop and mention on the route you rode from Spike Island up to the Ferry Tavern on the Transpennine route
"Out of the mud banks of the River Mersey grows a flower, capturing the wind to create light. 120 perforate galvanised petals gently flutter and glow, lit by 60 low-voltage LED lights. Without the wind, the petals glow in the light of the sun and the sky. With different wind speeds, the lights reach different intensities, resulting in an ever changing and dynamic flower"
Keep up the riding.
We were a Widnesian family exiled to Runcorn for the work in the mid 1950s. My dad worked on Wigg Island, though the works was called Randle's rather than Wigg's and I wouldn't eat the balackberries there either. My dad was a pipe fitter whose job it was to install/repair the pipes from the decommissioned Poison Gas plant to the seepage pits where they dumped the left-overs. He said that the pipes and fittings had to be of special material because the effluent was so corrosive it would eat through the joints on ordinary steel.
Great series of videos, which I've only just discovered.
Brings back lots of memories for this elderly exile. Thanks a lot.
Tried this last Sunday the opposite way round. Panicked a bit finding the track on wigg Island. Very wet and muddy so will try it again in summer. Was a bit worried that I would find a random gate blocking my path, but felt better when I saw two cyclists coming towards me from Moore.
Just catching up with your previous videos, they are fab matey thank you :)
Excellent little channel this pal, and the music just adds to it, so fair play to ya.
I'm gonna do the Wiggs Island to Warrington journey on foot at some point.
I really appreciate Bimbles. Relocating from Sefton to Warrington over a decade ago, your videos are informative and entertaining. More power to your elbow!!
I think those United Utilities brick buildings are where the Lake Vyrnwy aqueduct passes under the Mersey.
Yes, that's exactly what it is - it supplies water to Liverpool
Cracking Bimble Kieran ....weve done the complete sankey canal from st helens to runcorn in section s i have to say but great walk ...Regards Frank & Lee .. Lancashire Walks....
Love this fella 😊
Hi just come across the channel and having watched quite a view I’m now hooked. So I’ve subscribed and cannot wait for more.
Woolyback is a term from Liverpool docks where dockers wore sheepskin coats to harness themselves on building and shifting off docks Liverpool people people also wore wool for building the cathedral also
This is my favourite local route which I often do, I also continue through warringotn over Woolston Weir and then onto the transpenine trail and eventually end up in Manchester so much bimbling to be had!
You can extend the loop into Latchford, through woolston, around birchwood over warburton bridge and back down the 62 all with minimal roads just a bit of country lanes. :)
Nice video, thanks. I wanted to do this route but hadn't done it for years and couldn't quite remember how to get through some sections, watching this really helped. I seem to remember having to squeeze through a fence near Wigg island last time, good to see it's opened up now. Enjoyed the local info too 👍
Again when I was young me and a mate rode to the bridge and over it… from palace fields or the glen sides 😉I’m from brook vale lived in castle fields and family in Southgate too
Haha 😀 "Nan's toilet green" 😀
going to do this one in the next week or so thanks
Love it might give that rout a go loving the info on the area 😁 🚲
@ 1.56mins.........That's a good little track that takes you right under the Railway bridge and to the Ship canal. @ 16.41mins....they are glazed brick, not tiles. Great route this, I come down from Sankey Valley park, getting on at Earlstown or Bewsey.
We usually start at spike island towards Warrington on the same route but then come out by the swing bridge, over that towards darsbury, then through more to Runcorn and back over bridge to Widnes.
When they where unloading cotton at the docks, from the Americas, to go to the mills in Manchester, they thought the cotton was wool. Hence the name "wooly back"
Brilliant video
Apparently according to my mum who was a Runcornian at low tide you could walk across the Mersey from that point and there were guides across the Mersey who placed canes where it was safe to walk , I personaly not so sure or may be the river's changed
Who’s the songs ? Reminds me of vampire weekend… chill video again mate 😉
Thetmy are mine. Links to my bandcamp in the video descriptions. :)
Cycling,local industrial heritage and cool music.Whats not to like. How about doing Bold, Clock Face, Sutton Manor and Parkside. The colliery ride.
Great video. I've done this loop many times in a slightly different way. I've always given up on the track past Moore nature reserve because of the state of the potholes. Ended up going over Moore Bridge and past the mobile homes, through the linear park, picking up Bridgewater canal into runcorn. Will definitely try the wigg island way.
I've done that way to. Both are great.
Woolly
I have say as being a woolly back myself lol, it may be a term for scab workers brought into the city from surrounding towns to manually load and unload ships in the Liverpool docks; unloading ships, the dockers would carry the woollen bales on their backs, leaving wool on their clothes.
I think it goes back further than that even. I've heard yorkshire men refer to people from Lincolnshire as woolly backs. It probably has multiple meanings.
@@BimblismUK don't think we will ever get to the bottom of it, i hated the plastic scouser's calling me that in school
@@BimblismUK The derivation I heard was that it dates back to the times when the first wool barges started coming down the Leeds and Liverpool canal when, to distinguish them from the coal barges, they were identified as "wolley back'uns"
They were unloading cotton, not wool, to take to the Manchester Mills.
People thought the cotton was wool.
Wooly back
Can you tell me more about the music. Can't find much online. Who is singing ?
@@martinnorth2680 should be links in the description. It's my own music. :)
@@BimblismUK thank you, love the music
P.S any chance you could post a link for your ride's GPS file or komoot etc. in the description?
Where you started your journey . Is that near the nature reserve called Moore nature reserve ?
It's fairly close yes.
0:00 a bimbler was born
Good videos but now I am into them I really need to know about the music. Fill us in please
The music is my own. I went by the name specs and kieran gallimore. I was also in a band called bill davro. :)
Woolly back, came from the farmers carrying the sheep 🐑 on their backs to market
St.Helens used to be Lancashire so I guess you can't count us as wooly backs
So did Widnes and Warrington. :)
the name Woolly Back come from the Liverpool docks it concerned the dockers who unloaded the sheep's wool from the ships , they carried it on their backs it may have been peace work so what they earned came from how many fleeces they could unload carrying the loads on there back allowed them to unload more earning more money and with the wealth they escaped the city and moved to the Wirral Birkenhead etc having a cleaner environment to live in so the Wirral peoples came to be known as woolly backs
@ 2:37 Dupont on the left
what is the music you use
It's my own music. There is a playlist on the channel if you have a look. All available on bampcamp. :)
I'd love to get my metal detector on the mud at widnes but halton borough council don't allow it. Not sure why, stuff will just rot away - nothing will be saved. that said, I bet the mud is thicker now so all the old gold rings and coins will be deep.
Must at least be some coins dropped from the old transporter bridge. Shame they don't allow it.
I thought wooly back meant country folk?😊
What exactly is a Bimble
noun
a leisurely walk or journey.
@@BimblismUK Thank you would you ever do a Bimble in Helsby
@@AdamDawson3 it possible I may pass through. :)
@@BimblismUK Helsby Hill is amazing the views from there are incredible and there is an old water tower hidden behind some trees that is visible if you stand in the Quarry car park and there is an old disused railway that is very overgrown at the back of Tesco it connects Helsby to Mouldsworth
Cheshire
Woolyback..,,Nothing to do with sheepskin coats 😮Term was first used to describe people from Wales liking them to sheep. Phrase them spread to other non Lpool areas such as , Wirral, Widnes, Warrington etc 🙏 2024 term is now ‘wools’ not Woolybacks 😅Good to keep you up to date 😅
If I had a pound for every explanation someone gave me for the term "woolyback" I could retire tomorrow.
People in Hull call people in Grimsby Woolybacks.
I think it goes deeper. I was wrong in the video but I also think you might be wrong. It requires special research. :)
@@BimblismUK - scousers now refer to Woolybacks as ‘wools’ or having wool
behaviours 👍fact mate ! I work with many teen- ages.
@@BimblismUK - do enjoy your vids btw 👍👍