A Monkey Tale

I had an errand in the village so Ollie dog and I went for a short walk along the Stort Navigation afterwards. I love seeing dogs on boats. This  Labrador was keeping a lookout on a narrowboat. The boat's name is Alice Grace and its home port is Heywood. 

I was intrigued by the image of a monkey sitting on a stool with its tail passing through a hole in the seat. Heywood, near Rochdale, is known as Monkeytown. It is thought it got this name in the 1850s because Irish immigrants, who had come to work on building the railway, pronounced Heap Bridge, Heywood as Ape Bridge. Stools in pubs had holes in the seats to make them easier to carry.