A TALK to celebrate the 200th birthday of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal will be held at Otley Courthouse this month.

Stretching over 127 miles, the Leeds Liverpool is the UK's largest single waterway canal.

Parliament agreed for it to be built, a process that ended up taking 46 years, in 1770 and it went on to play a crucial role in the North of England's industrial revolution.

Bill Froggatt, the Heritage Advisor at Northwest Waterways, will lead a talk on the history of the canal on Thursday, November 24.

The event starts at 7.30pm and will cover everything from the 18th Century Parliamentary debates through to the canal's heyday during the rise of industry.

Mr Froggatt will also examine the reasons behind the waterway being created and some of the practical challenges that had to be overcome to build it.

Tickets for the talk cost £8 in advance - £6 concessions - or £9 on the door.

Another discussion evening, this time revolving around a film showing an English women's football team's tour of the West Bank, in the Palestinian territories, will be held at the Courthouse on Thursday, December 1.

Balls, Barriers and Bulldozers will be screened at 7.45pm by Otley Film Society and the Leeds Palestinian Film Festival.

The film follows the team's trip to the West Bank, which aimed to demonstrate solidarity with local women footballers, and shows how what they experienced changed them.

The team vowed to share the story of the people they met and their daily struggles upon their return - and a member will take part in a discussion following the film.

Tickets cost £5 and can be booked by visiting otleycourthouse.org.uk, calling (01943) 467466 or popping into the Courthouse on Courthouse Street.