Sunday May 6th, Wigan - Parbold

We enjoyed two nice, quiet nights in Wigan, moving across to the sanitary station on Saturday morning to empty the loos and fill up with water, and then down Henhurst Lock to tie up on the secure moorings outside the BW Regional Office.

To our surprise and delight we tied up behind the boat with which we had cruised with from Aintree to Litherland two years ago – ‘RJ’. They are also doing the link again; they’ve done it every year since it opened! They’re booked for the passage into the docks a bit after us, though.

Wigan Bottom Lock & Drydock

We got to Wigan too late on Friday for the Regional Office’s even more restricted opening hours to get an electricity card for Liverpool, but the TIC in Albert Dock sells them now, so if we’re desperate, we can get one there. What was even more annoying was the notice displayed in their window giving the working hours of the Plank Lane Lift Bridge keeper! He doesn’t work there anymore! ARGGGGHHHH.

Old warehouses at Wigan

This morning, after utilising the BW office rubbish skips, we set off with ‘RJ’ into the bottom lock and were soon on our way through Wigan’s nether regions. Having said that, there is still plenty of interest. A sharp turn to the left brought us to the surviving old warehouses, one now used as a pub whilst the others, at one time housing exhibitions, are sadly now boarded up and empty. Another warehouse with a lovely canal loading arm going under the building lies to the right of the sharp turn and is another pub.

The ubiquitous Wigan Pier follows. It is nothing more than a pair of upturned rails at the site of an old coal tippler. Thanks to George Formby and George Orwell, it has become world famous. Two years ago when we travelled through Wigan, the area below Ell Meadow Lock (on the town’s outskirts) seemed to be the last resting place of every empty plastic bottle in the universe. They have now moved to the area around Seven Stars Bridge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many short of a landfill site.

Under a railway bridge and an area of old coal workings is slowly being reused. The impressive DW Stadium, home to Wigan Athletic FC (fighting their annual battle against relegation) and Wigan Warriors – the rugby league club. Other large warehouse type developments continue for some distance, but an older form of employment flanks Pagefield Lock – Pagefield Ironworks, much reduced in size from its Victorian heyday.

Ell Meadow Lock follows, now much cleaner (much less dog crap) and tidier (the plastic bottles have moved). The last few houses and retail units of Wigan’s suburbs usher in countryside at the site of a former lock, lost through subsidence.

By the time you arrive at the twin basins, once colliery basins now used as attractive private moorings, you are at Crooke – a popular mooring site with a busy pub. We utilised the services of Derek on his wide boat ‘Ambush’ when we were here two years ago – he has now returned to his more familiar mooring below Wigan Bottom Lock.

The Douglas Valley

The River Douglas, which we had crossed over on a hard to spot aqueduct immediately after Wigan Junction, comes alongside now and is the canal’s close companion as far as Parbold, 7 miles away. Once navigable itself (although hard to imagine now), it has created an idyllic path along its valley, one that the canal is happy to keep company. Thick woodland flanks both sides, with Ransomes (wild garlic) and bluebells creating a carpet of colour.

Low ridges follow the canal with the trees thinning every now and again to give views of copses and green fields. Busy at work, chewing the grass, cows abound belying the fact that Wigan is just a couple of miles away. The Wigan to Southport railway line follows the canal, but it doesn’t intrude with an infrequent service.

Civilisation briefly interrupts this rural interlude with the railway crossing over just after Gathurst, and the M6 soaring high overhead to clear the river, railway and canal on a series of massive, long legs.

Gathurst was once notable for an explosives factory (now closed) and is now notable for manufacturing Heinz baked beans. From one type of explosion to another perhaps?

Immediately after the M6 viaduct comes Dean Lock. It was once a pair of locks, but one chamber has long been in disuse.

Another long rural length follows interrupted only by the first swing bridge of the day and the village of Appley where we enter Lancashire, a fact proudly proclaimed by the notices. It seems strange that we should be entering this proud county (which we will be in for the next dozen miles or so), as once, we would have been in Lancashire as far back as Dunham Massey, and would remain in it all the way to Liverpool.

But since the appalling insensitive local government reorganisations of 1974 and later, we have been passing through Greater Manchester, Wigan Metropolitan Council and we will subsequently enter Merseyside.

Appley Lock was again once paired, but this time the single deep chamber was paired with two shallower locks alongside. Sadly only the 12’ deep lock is in use today, and can be a right so & so if you’re not careful when climbing up on your own. For us this is the last lock until we start the descent into the docks in Liverpool.

We met a single boat here starting the climb up from the surrounding low lying area. They had only just picked the boat up and the lady (who was working the lock) wanted a bit of reassurance on what to do and what to watch out for.

Canal "junction" at Parbold

Once down the lock, the canal again follows the river through some charming scenery for a couple of miles before reaching Parbold. There is a sort of T-junction here with the route to Liverpool turning sharp left. There is a short stub of water heading away to the right, now used as moorings and before that as a drydock.

This is what is left of the original line of the canal as first sanctioned by Parliament. The line was to pass to more to the north than the present line, and bypass Wigan, Chorley and Blackburn altogether. That, understandably, upset the colliery owners of Wigan and the cotton merchants of Chorley & Blackburn, and in due course, saner counsels prevailed and the present line was built. But not before a short section had been dug out at Parbold.

Mooring at Parbold

Having passed under the road bridge by the attractive former windmill, we tied up for the day. We might stay here two days given the weather forecast for tomorrow and the time in hand we have before our passage into the docks on Friday.