Musing: I Can't
Believe It

Tall bridges, viaducts and great concrete structures stirred similar feelings, and they still do. Fountains and cranes too, although those carried something darker. I was about three when I first noticed half a dozen cranes through the window of my granny's house, standing motionless on the horizon. They fascinated me, but equally unsettled me. Their stillness felt menacing. I saw one move. Its arm slowly swinging across the skyline and I screamed. These monumental machines were living things, giant mechanical creatures stretching their vast robotic arms across the landscape to grab me. There was something strangely exhilarating about feeling powerless, a sinister mixture of fear and fascination that held me there.

Fountains were different again. It sounds ridiculous, but when I was nine, standing beside a pool in Alcudia, I thought I was waiting to see a small decorative water display. As the clock struck the hour, a colossal jet of water suddenly erupted into the sky, soaring higher than the surrounding buildings. There was no warning. One second everything was calm; the next, this enormous column of water was roaring upwards. I was traumatised by it. Shock, dread, anxiety and disbelief colliding all at once. They still make me uneasy. Cranes still provoke that old shiver too, although enchantment usually wins the battle.

The aqueduct was different.

Looking at it now, it seems modest compared with the vast bridges I've stood in awe of since. Time has altered my sense of scale. Yet the feeling remains untouched.

Even today, knowing it is there beyond the trees, I catch a glimpse of the stonework through the foliage and feel something stir. It reveals itself fully, just as it did all those years ago, and I am transported back to that first family picnic beside the River Medlock.

The memory survives as a complete experience: the babbling river, the hush of the trees, the warm afternoon, the surprise of discovery and the overwhelming sense of wonder. For a moment, I am standing there again, five years old, looking up at that immense stone structure and thinking, with absolute certainty:

"I can't believe it."

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The Waterhouse Aquaduct in Daisy Nook Country Park was built in the 1790s and carried the Hollinwood Branch Canal over the River Medlock. Although the canal is no longer in use, the aqueduct remains one of the park's most distinctive landmarks.

Photos © 2025