Members may be interested in this new publication from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Society.
Following the First World War the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Company decided to close the Bradford Canal and stop providing a commercial transportation service. Benjamin Walls, who like his father was an employee of the Company, bought two boats from the Company to establish his own independent commercial transport company. One of these boats was the last to travel the Canal prior to its closure in 1922.
Benjamin based himself in Skipton, and the B C Walls Company took over warehouse facilities along the Canal in Yorkshire. In 1930 the Company merged with three other companies to form Canal Transport Limited, with much of the day-to-day operation in the hands of Benjamin’s sons Earl and Norman.
Earle and Norman formed Ingrow Mills and, in 1946, established the Walls Shipping Company. This grew to be an international shipping company with offices in Hull, Bradford, Liverpool, London and Southampton
Norman never lost his interest in the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Upon his retirement he set about the task of writing a history of the Canal provisionally entitled The Rise and Fall of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Sadly, Norman died in 1973 with the book still to be completed.
Amongst Norman’s papers were transcripts of interviews that he had conducted for inclusion in his book. They provide unique insights into the Canal stretching from the late nineteenth century to the Second World War.
The ’Walls Interviews’ have been transcribed by members of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Society and the Ormskirk and District Family History Society. They are now available, in richly illustrated format, under the title, The Walls Interviews, A Workers History of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal’. This can be purchased for £12, including postage, from the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Society – through secretary@leedsandliverpoolcanalsoc.co.uk
