RON Freethy's article on clog dancing and canals (LET, February 27) was most interesting.

For those who would like more information on the subject, over the May Day bank holiday weekend, May 2 to 4, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Society will be holding a heritage weekend.

One of the aims of the society is the preservation of the traditions of the boatmen and women who worked the Leeds and Liverpool canal in its commercial days.

Clog dancing was a popular pastime and for the steerers of the boats, it was a means of keeping warm on cold winter days.

The Leeds and Liverpool canal is unique in its traditions and heritage from the clogs and "gansey" (it means "pullover" in Gaelic) to the decoration of the boats with the scrolls and gravity around the stem and stern posts of the boats; a style thought to be Celtic or Norse in origin.

The canal is also the longest and was at one time one of the most successful in the country, linking the North sea with the Irish sea - a link that has not gone unnoticed by yachtsmen from the continent.

For Lancashire, this unique heritage has great potential for tourism and for the towns that the canal passes through there is an undiscovered gold mine just waiting to be developed by those with vision and commitment.

ALAN HOLDEN, Marlborough Road, Accrington.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.