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Tales From The Manchester Ship Canal: Liverpool to Salford

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The Manchester Ship Canal

Modern technology may seem daunting at first, but once you've taken the first steps you'll be surprised just how easy it is. You'll also be astonished at just how many ways there are to improve your life, be it making the most of your hobby, enjoying your leisure time to the full, keeping in touch with your family or simply making your money go further.

The films follow the lives of people living and working along the course of the canal, from Liverpool to Salford, who have decided to take the plunge and do just that. Watch the films and meet ordinary people with some extraordinary tales to tell; from Isobel, a keen kart racer at Hooton Park, who uses computer technology to save vital seconds on the race track, to Annemarie who runs a South African Restaurant in Ellesmere Port to order the ingredients for her menu.

You will also meet the likes of Joe, who along with his fellow volunteers is helping to restore the historic tug The Daniel Adamson in Liverpool docks, busy mum Rakiya Rahman who offers online maths lessons from her home in Merseyside and keen fisherman Mike who has made his own Salford fishing blog.

Play the whole film, or click on the numbered links above to take a step-by-step journey along the canal to meet them.

The Daniel Adamson volunteers

The Daniel Adamson is a 100-year-old tug that was later converted into an Art Deco cruise boat. It was used by the rich and famous to sail the length of the Manchester Ship Canal. Over time, this once iconic tug fell into disrepair.

Vandalised and no longer of use, it was destined for the scrap heap until it was saved by a group of volunteers who went onto to form the Daniel Adamson Preservation Society.

Using the internet a group of 20 people, many of them strangers, went on to create their own society which now has its own web page and online community.

The group now consists of more than 60 volunteers, many of them ex-ship canal workers. Between them they commit to two to three days a week on the boat, with the aim of restoring The Daniel Adamson to its former glory so it can once again sail along the Manchester Ship Canal.

Computers are also being used by the group as a research tool, playing a central role in the restoration of the boat and are being used to source engineering contractors and parts.

Read more: The Daniel Adamson Preservation Society

Tracey Fisher in the churchyard at Eastham

Tracey Fisher was given an incomplete family tree on an A4 piece of paper as a gift. It sparked her curiosity about her own family history, and subsequently the history of her entire village.

Her great-grandfather, Harry Jackson, was from Eastham and fought and died in the First World War. Discovering his story led her to research the background of other men from the village who fought in both the First and Second World War.

That research invariably starts in the local church, where she visits the graveyard and the commemorative display for clues about 'The Eastham Boys'. Using their registration number and any other details she can find, she heads online to uncover out more details. Her ultimate aim is to put a living person to the name, and where possible trace a photograph of the soldier himself.

Using the church as a starting point, she goes on to use the power of the internet, including family history research websites to trace soldiers.

She's managed to trace all but one of the soldiers from the village who fought in the wars. She has also traced many of their photographs and discovered details of much of their life stories. Three of the soldiers had actually worked on the Ship Canal and were around at the time it was being built.

Her personal project has grown to such an extent that with others, she has staged local events exhibiting what she has discovered. It has also brought her closer to many of the local residents in the village.

John Jones on his farm in Childer Thornton

John Jones was born in the year his father bought Heath Lane Farm. Fifty years on he runs the farm using the latest technology.

His sole aim is to get his vegetables out of the ground and to the customer as quickly as possible, putting them in cold store before they are sent to clients around the region later that day or the following morning.

He grows a variety of crops ranging from spring cabbage to Brussels sprouts on his 40 acres of land, but in the face of stiff competition from the supermarkets he has had to turn to computer technology to help him diversify.

John keeps in contact with clients while out on the farm using his mobile phone where he can check up on emails. He also plans the sowing of his crops for the year using a computer.

He uses computers and his mobile phone to research pesticides, and to keep up to date with the latest farmers' markets in the area that have become a crucial part of his business.

John is now planning to expand his farm's website so that he can sell directly to customers in the local area.

Tony and Isobel with their racing kart

Run by Bob Wilson, Hooton Park Circuit was constructed in 2006 on the site of the old Hooton Airfield near Ellesmere Port and holds regular race meetings for enthusiasts and future generations of Formula 1 racers.

We follow Isobel, a 15-year-old karter and Jon Oillier, the track's timing official. Isobel is 15 years old and over the last three years has become an avid karter. Her dad Tony takes care of the mechanics, and together they use a device called the Mychron to provide data that can help them beat off the competition. Information is uploaded from the device onto a computer and after each race important data can be analysed, giving them the opportunity to correct any racing errors or mechanical problems. In this, the last race of the season, Isobel is looking for a good finish to guarantee her a 5th placed position in her class this year.

It's Jon's job to ensure each racer is given a transponder which transmits information from the cars to a central computer. He makes sure that all race timings and final finishing orders are accurately recorded. It's a job that can see Jon officiating at motor sport events across the country. During the race each transponder sends data via electronic timing equipment to the steward's computer, logging race time and order. At the end of the race this information is typically printed out for the racing teams to see.

Read more: Hooton Park Circuit

Tony and Isobel with their racing kart

The restaurant sits on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal and is owned by Annemarie Groenewald. The name 'Jabula' is the Zulu / Xhosa word for 'happiness'.

Annemarie set up this South African restaurant after being unable to find the kind of food she was brought up on back home in Durban. She bases much of the menu on traditional recipes handed down to her by her mother, including bobotie, pap en wors and vetkoek. They also serve game including springbok, crocodile and kudu, a species of South African antelope.

Annemarie works in the restaurant front of house and occasionally in the kitchen, aided by friendly Scouse waiter, Robbie. On Friday and Saturday nights the restaurant is typically packed out and they have performances of traditional South African drumming.

Annemarie went on a computing course when she first arrived in Britain and computers are now used in the running of her business, keeping track of business accounts and sourcing ingredients.

She also uses the web to promote the business and reach out to customers via Facebook, online booking, and her website.

Maths tutor Rakiya Rahman

Born in Liverpool of Bangladeshi parents, full-time mum Rakiya Rahman studied mathematics at university. Now, after she's made the sandwiches and done the school-run, she returns back home to turn her attention to her other passion, maths.

She has turned this passion into a part time business, tutoring children aged 5 and upwards, going up to A level standard. She mainly does this face to face but she now uses computers as an integral part of her business, setting up a website and teaching maths online as an extension to her tutoring at home.

Rayika admits to having hated computers when she was a child and never used them until she was forced to at university when she was 21. She says she's now on the computer all day, "if I'm not cooking, cleaning or looking after the kids I'm on the computer. My husband is sick of it - if I'm not doing tutoring I'm building pages for the website."

She also offers free Skype lessons every time she hits a certain number of 'likes' on her Facebook page. (She's had a total of 18,000 and she's done 15 free Skype lessons so far and plans to offer more). Maths tuition can be expensive but she says offering promotions and being online is a great way of drumming up business. After being on the web for one year she's now getting 600-700 unique visitors a day.

Rakiya tutors everyday – and she says because of the raised profile of her part time business via her website, she is now busy all year round and she's normally fully booked. Using Skype to give free lessons, Rakiya says she could be teaching people on the other side of the world.

Graeme standing next to his narrow boat

Although he lives in Warrington, Graeme is a narrow boat enthusiast with a boat moored at Bridgewater Motor Boat Club, Runcorn. He has travelled the canal routes of the nation extensively and uses computer technology to navigate his way around and keep in touch with the world while on his travels.

With his trusty dongle, Graeme can keep in touch with the world via email and access the internet where he makes use of a website to plan his next journey.

Graeme is an avid reader but says that over the years he has taken shelves down from his boat because he is reading more and more books on his computer. He is also a member of an amateur big band group.

Read more: Photographs from the Bridgewater Motor Boat Club

Irene talking to her husband on her laptop computer

Irene uses Skype every single day to speak to Dave in far flung places like Columbia, Düsseldorf and China means that Irene gets to see her husband every day, even when they're thousands of miles apart. Irene also calls her family in New Zealand so that she can see how they're getting on. This saves her hundreds of pounds in expensive long distance phone calls as everything is free.

The company Irene worked for went into liquidation two years ago and she took voluntary redundancy. She had become close friends with the other two ladies in her team and really misses them now they're not at work. By using their computers all three friends can now chat online at the same time at no extra cost and Irene feels it's like being back in the office.

Since redundancy, she's decided to 'make the most of every day' and advance her basic computing skills. At the age of 61 she decided to take up a multimedia computing course at her local college. Irene's completed a 'First steps to Photoshop' desktop publishing and multimedia course, so she can repair damaged old photos with her Photoshop skills and bring her holiday photos to life by making DVDs of the pictures, which she puts to music and narrates.

Money saving expert Avis sat if front of her computer screen

At the age of 50 Avis had never touched a computer before, so she decided to go to a computing class at her local community centre. People she knew said she shouldn't bother, but those skills have since opened up her world and five years on, she now uses her home computer every day to run her household and save money.

Money-saving has become increasingly important to Avis in recent years after she was forced to end a career as a carer when she suffered a collapsed disc in her neck. She's now registered disabled, so the household has to rely upon the sole income of Avis's husband, John.

Avis uses eBay to get the best deals for the things she needs for her family. From bridal wear for her daughter's recent wedding to Christmas stocking fillers, Avis searches sites to compare prices to make sure she's getting a better deal. Avis has also sold some clothes that no longer fit her through eBay. Her PayPal account enables her to buy and sell online. Being able to use Facebook and emails to keep in touch with friends and family really saves on her phone bill. Her and her husband saved over £200 on their car insurance by going online and Avis can check her energy bills online so they're left with no nasty surprise bills, which helps with budgeting.

Avis also takes part in an online community recycling scheme. She earns points through the recycling scheme, which can be traded treats for herself, or her granddaughter. The computer's really helped Avis bond with her granddaughter; Jade is 10 and she teaches her Nana about Facebook, while Avis has been able to teach Jade how to write a proper letter in Word.

Maeri using her sewingm achine

Maeri moved from New York to England for her career in publishing 20 years ago. She fell in love with 'quaint' England after marrying a British man. Born in Vermont, USA, Maeri has fond memories of her mum sewing and making clothes when she was a little girl, but her New York publishing career pushed all her craft skills to one side.

Three years ago, Maeri wanted to take a sewing class and found there were no craft classes available at all in the Warrington area. She saw a gap in the market and in 2009 opened the Make and Do Studio from her home in Stockton Heath, Warrington.

Maeri built her own website and moved house to set up a studio big enough for classes of six. She runs classes in traditional crafts such as sewing, preserving, quilt making and creative gift-wrapping. Her craft classes are now sold to people from across the North West and has recently opened a 'virtual shop' to sell her handbags.

The last bag she sold online was sent to a customer in Australia. There would be no sales outside her four walls, let alone Warrington if it wasn't for the web. Maeri also employs various craft specialists on a freelance basis to run classes that aren't in her field. Through the internet she sources fabric from shops in New York and if ever she's stuck with a particularly tricky pattern, she can Skype her Mum for advice.

Read more: The Make and Do Studio blog

Brian Webber at Moore Nature Reserve

The Moore reserve covers 200 acres of lakes, woodland, meadows and ponds, which Brian supervises in a bid to aid the survival of a wide variety of birds, animals, plants and other wildlife. To ensure people also regularly visit the site, Brian hosts a 'geocaching' game on the reserve, a modern variation of orienteering using GPS devices.

Goecaching devices are placed in secret locations throughout the conservation area. Anyone wanting to play will need a handheld smartphone or GPS device downloaded with geocaching software. Once the relevant coordinates are downloaded anyone playing the game can then use the device to seek out various hidden geocaches dotted through the conservation site. The GPS co-ordinates will take players to within a few feet of the geocache. They will then have to use the clues provided to find the treasure. They're often tiny little boxes containing a small prize and a log book where people can write down who found the geocache.

Once people have finished their day they can upload comments onto the geocaching website, detailing how easy or hard they found it to discover the prizes, and add any comments about the area explored during the day. Brian has now seen a big increase in the number of people who visit the conservation area since he started using geocaches around the nature reserve. He says it makes it all worthwhile for him as it brings in people who wouldn't normally come to the reserve or even know the reserve existed.

Read more: Moore Nature Reserve

Steve McCarthy coaching at Lymm Golf Club

The golf club is right on the bank of the waterway with its 6th hole at on top of soil dug out when the Manchester Ship Canal was built. In a sport associated with 'old school' traditions and in a game played at a historic golf course, coach Steve is using modern technology to radically improve the experience of the club's patrons.

Before the GPS technology was in use, people would use 'yard books' on the course to gauge what golf club to use next. This book would give information about how far the putting greens were away from various points on the course. A lot of guesswork would be involved, often meaning choosing the wrong club for the shot.

The GPS device known as 'Snooper' looks like an iPod and pinpoints exactly where on the course the golfer is, how many yards they are away from various points on the green, and what the problem areas are that need to be avoided such as bunkers, water hazards, trees etc. By using the Snooper golfers can dramatically improves their accuracy.

The swing analysis technology involves filming a golfer's swing. The footage is then put into a computer and processed through software slowing down the moving image. Frames can be frozen on the screen and Steve can draw lines onto the screen, highlighting the player's alignment and making sure positioning throughout the swing is correct.

Cyril Wood taking a photo with his digital camera

Since he was a teenager, Cyril Wood has always had a passion for cine film and stills photography. His first childhood holiday, on a narrow boat with his family back in the 1960s, also led to a life-long love affair with this country's canal network.

Cyril has since gone on to combine both these passions, recording the canals of Britain through photography. He took his first photograph of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1985 and regularly returns to the canal to take additional photographs. He has also written a book on the Manchester Ship Canal featuring many photographs.

Although he has a passion for old still cameras, Cyril has moved with the times and now regularly uses a digital camera. He uses his computer to upload his digital photographs, which he stores on a hard drive, on to his website for others to enjoy. He also archives historical stills from the canal, scanning them into his computer.

Read more: Canalscape

Steve Cooke holding a microphone on the runway next to his plane

Steve has taken his passion for all things aviation to the 'digital airwaves' by producing a monthly podcast.

Steve was bitten by the podcasting bug when his partner bought him an iPod. Not being a big fan of music, Steve wasn't sure what to do with it until he listened to his first podcast. Steve feels at that moment his life changed for the better. Being able to download and listen to radio programmes covering business, news and comedy was the perfect way for him to be able to catch up with his favourite programmes whenever he wanted. He eventually came across an aviation podcast from America covering everything about flying and being a pilot. This inspired him to make his own British version based in the hangar at Barton Airfield.

Steve's podcast covers his experiences as a pilot and sees him seek the answers to popular questions relating to the world of aviation. Steve produces his podcast through a hosted website he pays for because he wants it to be branded and look sleek, but there are free alternatives.

Once he's recorded the interviews he uploads them onto his home computer and uses a free software package called Audacity to edit the podcast, mixing the sound levels for clarity through a desk he has attached to his PC. Once complete, he uploads the podcast onto iTunes where people can download it. All of Steve's podcasts are also available online, so you don't need an MP3 to listen.

Steve is amazed by the technology involved in making a podcast and really enjoys the recording aspect of the process, which he performs using a handheld digital recording equipment. But as much as he enjoys the technology, it's talking about flying that is his main drive behind doing the podcast.

Steve says you may not necessarily want to, or have the time to, read about your passions, but podcasts allow you to catch up with your favourite topics whilst driving, gardening or cooking. He now much prefers listening to podcasts to reading. Steve has a facility on his computer where he can see where in the world people are accessing his podcast. He now knows it is being downloaded from as far afield as New Zealand, China and Russia, achieving around 1,000 downloads for each episode.

Read more: Flying Podcast

Maria walking through an avenue of trees

When her remaining eyesight began to fail she wanted to stay as independent as possible and having computer knowledge has enabled her to do that. She advanced her computing at Henshaws centre for the blind and now uses a computer every single day.

Maria uses software called JAWS. It reads web pages out loud and is allows her to surf the net. She uses her computing skills to send and receive emails, shop online, write letters in Word, download books and music, read the newspaper and research recipes so she can cook for her family.

Maria also has a mobile phone that reads text messages from her kids out loud to her. Maria is a firm believer of encouraging people to get online, no matter what their age or ability "If I can do it then anyone can do it" she says.

Read more: Henshaws Society for Blind People

The BBC Research and Development team

The BBC Research and Development department is the core of the corporation's effort to be at the cutting edge of media technology and drives the exploration of exciting new tools for the production and distribution of programming.

It is also required to anticipate the future needs of the audience, for example in the areas of interfaces or content navigation, and are constantly looking to find ever more inventive ways of improving on existing services.

Much of the department's work involves developing complex technology that is masked by its deceptive ease of use.

Read more: BBC Research and Development

Mike and his fishing companions standing by Salford Quays

Mike Duddy is 47 years old, and has been fishing all around Manchester and Salford since he was a boy. He caught the fishing bug from his dad and granddad and couldn't wait to hit the age of six when they said he would be old enough to come fishing for the first time.

In 2008 he decided to set up his 'Manchester Fishing Fiend' blog in a bid to make new friends to fish with. It worked, and he now organises regular angling outings on the Manchester Ship Canal and meets up in the pub with his fishing pals. Mike's a regular blogger, sharing angling information, tips on where to go, uploading photos of the fish he and his mates have caught and inviting people out to fishing afternoons.

He runs it all from his laptop, regularly researching new fishing areas and other fishing blogs online and freely admitting that he's quite addicted to it all. Mike also sends out ebulletins and emails to the members of the world's oldest angling club 'The Salford Friendly Anglers', as he administers that club and runs the website and online applications.

Read more: Fishing Fiend and The Salford Friendly Anglers Society

Imaan working on her comic strip

Imaan is 23 years old and is currently completing her masters in illustration at Salford University. She has been drawing and illustrating for as long as she can remember. Putting pictures to the adventure stories she loved to read as a child sparked her passion for art.

Imaan studied art at school and when she went to college, realised that a new art world would be opened to her if she learned about computer technology. Advancing her computing skills has completely changed her art and Imaan now produces a comic strip that's published every quarter in the community newspaper 'Old Trafford News'. Her strip 'The Adventures of Vernon Vermin,' tells the tale of a rat that has too easy a life because of all the rubbish and litter the area suffers from.

Imaan would not be able to publish her hand drawn art without the use of computers. She scans in her original illustrations and then colours and lays out her sketches with software called Illustrator. This makes her artwork far easier to publish, which means that more people can see her illustrations as a result.

Having her artwork seen in the comic strip has led to Imaan designing community posters and logos; which should help her CV for future work. Imaan also uploads her illustrations to her own blog so even more people can see her work. She's currently learning moving animation at college too.

Imaan lives at home with her dad and has access to a laptop there. She can do some of her work on that but the computers at the St John's Community Centre (where the magazine is published), are where the main bulk of her work's produced.

Read more: Old Trafford News

Sandra and her husband inside their church

Reverend Sandra Kearney and her husband Bob work in an area with high levels of unemployment and the couple face a weekly battle to attract people through the doors of the church.

Six years ago the church was closed for business and after being reopened, Sandra's predecessor managed to build up congregation numbers to just five people a week. Since then, after a lot of hard work, Sandra has boosted attendance numbers up to 30 plus worshippers every Sunday. But for Sandra and Bob, this is not enough. So they are now turning to the internet and computer technology in a bid to boost congregation numbers.

Sandra sees the internet and social media as a way of breaking down barriers within the community and sharing information – no matter what your background. At the Salford Lads Club, Sandra has been attending a 'social media surgery' to learn all about Facebook. She now has an active Facebook page which is being used by her congregation. The church also has its own website.

Bob has taught himself how to use PowerPoint to help keep the church services modern. There's now no need for dusty hymnbooks and printing out tired looking service sheets. All the orders of service, prayers and hymns come up on a big screen in church with pictures. Bob feels this is helpful for people of different reading abilities and for people who may not have English as their first language.

Read more: St Clement's Church, Ordsall

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