Living things you'll see along the canal side:

- The water may look brown and 'dirty'. Don't be put off. In fact it is pretty clean. The canal is full of soils, algae and bacteria. Insects, fish and snails feed on these, and birds and animals eat the insects.

- birds: One of the best places in the city to see big flocks of swans, especially in winter (in summer they spread out to breed). Keep your eyes peeled for a very very fast flash of blue or orange as kingfishers hunt along here - you are unlikely to see them when they perch on the branches. Lots of mallards, moorhens and coots.

- insects: dragon flies and other water insects.

Butterbur

- plants: native water lilies (with yellow blooms) flower in the summer and produce 'brandy bottle' seeds in the winter; water forget-me-nots; Butterbur; water reeds called Phragmites; gipsywort and buddleia grow in the cracks in the banks.

- trees: willow, ash, lime and alder.

- animals: bats flying low over the water in the evening are probably Daubentons Bats. Bats flying higher up are likely to be Pipistrelles. Both are feeding on insects.

- fish: plentiful supplies of brown trout, barbell, carp, roach and chubb live in the rich and relatively clean waters. They are not easy to see though, so don't fall in when you are peering over the side.

- lichens - look on the sandstone blocks on the edge of the canal: you'll see lichens growing. These only live where the air is clean enough: a good sign of a healthy local environment.

swans on coir matting on the far bank

- landscaping: from 2004 onwards, parts of the hard concrete and tarmac edges on the far side of the canal and riverside are being replaced by rolls of coconut matting: Not only do these look less harsh, but they are filled with seeds of native flowers, and encourage algae, plants, insects, birds and wildlife.

Nineteenth Century Leicester was mainly a trading town, with an enormous cottage industry in knitting. The Industrial Revolution, spurred on by the growth of the canals and the railways, and the mass movement of people to the cities had led to many changes in Leicester.

Westbridge Place - a redeveloped mill

Along the canal knitting and hosiery industries moved into factories. Many of these, like the Pex factory on this side of West Bridge, and Friars Mills about one kilometre further along the water, were alongside the canal.

Today the Pex building (previously also known as West Bridge Mills) is used as apartments, and is called Westbridge Place. But for around a hundred years, people knitted worsted in harsh conditions. The canals were used to transport bulky raw materials and finished goods, and their water was used in the dying and manufacturing processes.