ALTHOUGH the foot and mouth crisis is far from over, access to some areas of the countryside is becoming easier. British Waterways have sensibly waited for clear instructions before allowing visitors back onto towpaths, but the all-clear has now started and RON FREETHY has been taking advantage of this.

I LIKE walking along canal banks. They are level so I don't get tired -- and the route is obvious so I never have to worry about getting lost.

The Wheelton Locks are set just off the Blackburn to Chorley road, are always busy enough to be interesting and yet there are quiet stretches along the canal which are ideal for fishing and also for studying wildlife.

It was early on a dull morning when I set out, but the sunshine was beginning to dispel the mist and low cloud. In the area around the Lock keeper's cottage, domestic hens were competing for scraps offered by visitors by a wide selection of hungry wild birds. Included in my list were mallard, black headed gull, herring gull, herring gull, coot, moorhen, pied wagtail and chaffinch.

Apart from the birdlife there is plenty for those interested in the industrial archeologist to enjoy. The spring vegetation was still not high enough to conceal a canal milestone which told me that I was 79 miles from Leeds. One of the most important feats of engineering of the late 18th and early 19th century is the 126 mile Leeds and Liverpool Canal and which is still open along the whole of its route.

The canal was completed in 1816 and is the longest in Britain. The locks at Wheelton are of great interest as they show how huge heavy barges can be lifted by the power of water. They were floated over the wet Lancashire moorlands towards Wigan and then down through the flood plain of the Mersey to Liverpool. There are ambitious plans on the drawing board to make a tourist feature of the still run-down area around the link from the canal into Liverpool Docks.

As I strolled from the Top Lock Inn I could appreciate that it is possible for the canal to have a multi-purpose function. Boaters, anglers, walkers and especially wildfowl were all comfortably living together.

The stretch is the haunt of kingfishers and I have consulted my diary I have seen these colourful birds on seven occasions.

Many visitors to Wheelton Locks never think about exploring the village itself. Actually there are two parks to this attractive settlement -- Higher and Lower Wheelton. Narrow sloping streets connect the two and in the summer swifts hunt for flying insects over the roof tops.

The presence of swifts, which are black swallow-like birds is a sure sign that the atmosphere is much cleaner than it was until the 1950s. Swifts in East Lancashire until recent times could not find enough insects with so much soot in the air.

The name Wheelton is of great interest and is said either to relate to the presence of a water wheel while others think it means Stone Circle. In the 13th century the settlement seems to have been known as Whelcroft.

I love trying to discover the old names for East Lancashire settlements. Far too many people think that we had no history at all until the coming of cotton, the canals and the railways.

What nonsense! Every footstep you take as you stroll through Lancashire can reveal history. All you need is the patience to unravel it.