On 16th March 1978, the Amoco Cadiz broke up 240 miles off the coast of Brittany spilling a staggering 227,000 tons of crude oil. It was an environmental disaster (and many of us will recall Blue Peter doing their bit in the clean-up operation).

The reason I am writing this is because I find it hard to believe that oil from the wreckage could find its way into Britain's waterways so quickly and with such devastation.

I was 8 at this time yet easily remember walking through Endcliffe Park (it was familiar territory for larking about in). And there, in the river were booms, large draft-excluder type things placed across the river in an attempt to collect the oil from furthering its way downstream (and into the old boating lake near the cafe). Sure enough, oil did gather there, thick, gloopy and ugly.

To my young imaginative brain, I marvelled at the idea that oil could travel from the English Channel and find its way into Endcliffe Park. Of course, nature suffered big time although I'm not sure whether the oil in the rivers of Sheffield affected any local wildlife.

Do any other forumers have any recollections about this disaster? It's hard to believe this is over 28 years ago yet my memories are lucid.

Oil couldn’t possibly go uphill, so I’d forget it if I were you. The oil you saw probably came from somewhere else.