THE grime of time has played havoc with this little snapshot (right). But because of its nostalgic significance I've decided to present it . . . in all its fuzzy glory!

It captures a time and place that long ago vanished from the local scene, featuring daredevil kids from Parr paddling their home-made metal canoes across a local flash of water known as the Marl Pit.

I'm indebted to Elsie Coates of Windle Street, St Helens, who forwarded the pictorial flashback after spotting a request on this page (August 30) from reader G. Brown of Heathfield Avenue, Sutton. He'd asked for any information about the great canoe craze of the early 1950s, shared by countless kids who launched tiny craft, fashioned from obsolete aircraft fuel tanks, onto the neighbourhood ponds, flashes and canals.

Her brothers, Jim and Bill Bibby were among those intrepid canoeists bobbing along on the Marl Pit, occasionally 'dropping anchor' to do a spot of fishing. And Mrs C informs us that these spare tanks, jettisoned by aircraft after use, originated at the American air base at Burtonwood and were converted for boating use by a well-known local scrap merchant and rag-and-bone man of that era, Tommy Gibbons.

Stan Roberts of Wharmby Road, Haydock, also had his memory tweaked by that early quest for canoe clues. "I had one of the first of those canoes," he tells us, "I bought it from Jimmy Cofffey, the haulage contractor from Parr, for about ten bob (50p), I think".

Converting those fuel tanks proved a work of art, adds Stan, because of all the internal sections which were full of holes _ the design idea being to stop the additional fuel from swirling about while the plane was in flight.

A few of the salvaged tanks exploded, reports our Haydock correspondent. "But quite a few were successfully floated, though they needed a couple of hundredweights of ballast in the bottom to keep them steady and safe".

And these craft, though liable to topple over if ill-handled, proved extremely buoyant.

Stan recalls: "When we launched ours into the 'razzer' at Sherdley Road, there were five of us aboard. She sailed well and we had a few other little cruises, until the rag-and-bone man took her away for five bob (25p)".