Saturday May 26th - Downholland Cross - Burscough Junction



Near Halsall

Another glorious morning dawned today – warm sunshine offset by a stiff but pleasant breeze. In this sort of weather, any length of canal looks lovely. But this utterly remote and peaceful section of the Leeds & Liverpool is quite enchanting.

Long open views across farmland are available in all directions and the growth of the crops in the fields since we came by just over a fortnight ago is nothing short of astonishing. One particular field caught my eye – over the last fortnight the ears on the sheaves of barley have really grown out, and the combination of the sunlight and the breeze sent pale green, shimmering waves across the silky tasselled ears. Magic.

What is he doing?........

Long soporific straights are punctuated by a succession of stone bridges, most of which have an adjacent pub. At Halsall Warehouse Bridge, an open area of grass has been provided with seating and a wooden sculpture of a man. I leave it to the reader to decide what he’s doing with his hands….

In the cutting, a vivid red azalea spilled over the high wall to provide a stunning burst of colour among all the greens.

Progress slowed as we passed Scarisbrick Bridge – the starting point of a long line of linear moorings of both the Mersey Motor Boat Club (their other moorings are at Lydiate) and the caravan park just beyond. Here we passed Andy Hoyle on ‘Achilles’; Andy is a fellow Facebook contributor.

Crabtree Lane Swing Bridge

We had been following another boat that had passed us about 5 minutes before we set off, and inevitably we caught up with them at the first swing bridge – New Lane Swing Bridge. Here they opened the bridge and allowed us to go through first, and we returned the favour at the next one – Crabtree Lane Swing Bridge. Here is seemed like the M1 all of a sudden as another boat appeared from the Burscough direction.

The breeze, gradually increasing in strength, blew Elaine across the cut to the off side before she could pass through the bridge, but she made a great recovery and got through fine. One of the boaters asked why she didn’t use the bow-thruster. Her reply was short, pithy and to the point… “I am the bow-thruster”! It’s true, but she’s usually in the kitchen….

Once through and with me back on board, it was but a short distance to Burscough where we wanted to use the sanitary station. Before we got there we exchanged greetings with the couple from the house where we had helped them re-secure the straying boat when we passed by in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, the boat occupying the only available space on the sanitary station mooring was just finishing as we approached Burscough Bridge, and as they pushed across to the moorings on the other side, we moved in to take their place. Having emptied the loo and got rid of the rubbish (including the bags containing the contents of my weed hatch excursions on Thursday), Elaine nipped to the bakers and Co-Op whilst I watched over the water tank filling. The baker’s shop, right next to the canal is a marvel and Elaine bought a lovely crusty white loaf and two chocolate brownies – Yummee!

Whilst waiting, we were advised that a fishing match was taking place from just in front of the long term moorings adjacent to the sanitary station right up to Burscough Junction. We had wanted to moor just before the junction in our usual place so as to enable us to explore part of the Rufford Arm tomorrow.

We decided, once the water tank was full, to forget about mooring at the Junction and tie up somewhere beyond towards Parbold. However, just after passing through the rail bridge, we saw an empty length without boats or fishermen and dived in straight away.

It has been a thoroughly wonderful morning’s journey. Nothing spectacular, but just lovely.