Crooke

Today's Canal - Leeds and Liverpool

Plank Lane, just 10 minutes cruising from our overnight mooring, has a mechanised lift bridge that carries a rather busy road - it seems to be a popular short cut. It would seem that in the past there was friction between road and water when long queues built up at rush hours. So now, a time lock prevents the bridge being opened between certain times.

We left Pennington Flash aiming to be at the bridge just as the morning closure came to an end at 9:30. 

The bridge sits alongside the new, but fairly small (its own words) marina that does not allow any residential use. It was formed from a loading basin that was part of Bickerstaff Colliery. 

Christine took the key to the control box and, after being very polite and letting cars through in both directions, pressed the button to raise the  bridge.

Immediately after the bridge is a narrows that was once a lock. This was replaced, along with the two Dover Locks at Abram, by the wo Poolstock Locks, as a result of the extensive subsidence caused by the mining, the same subsidence that created the numerous flashes alongside the canal. there

Alongside the first of the two Dover Locks there was long a pub called, naturally, Dover Lock Inn. It shut several years ago and its owners have made several failed attempts to gain planning permission to knock it down and replace it with several new houses. Last December there were two fires within a week that have reduced it to a mere shell. It will be interesting to see what happens now to the site.

This is the upper of the two former locks that were replaced.

We passed Scotmans Flash - we have often moored here when passing either way along this canal but Pennington seemed just as good so we now have a choice.

A new Link Road to the south of Wigan has made use of a former rail track that ran across the top end of the flash. It was near completion when we last came here in 2019. It is now well and truly open and seems very popular.

We arrived at the first Poolstock Lock wondering what might face us - they were closed for a day or so last week as the short intermediate pound was too empty to navigate. This is a long known problem, which we ourselves have had to cope with before, but it seems that little has been done. It is popularly supposed to be the result of really excessive leakage through the gates - and visually they do seem to let a lot of water through, but the failure to cure hints at perhaps other factors that are much more expensive to undertake.

Despite meeting two boats just before the lock that had just come through, the lock had already started to fill itself and hence needed emptying before our boat could enter.

Then came the dreaded short pound. Silt and rubbish did not help, added to the very low water level. Christine was working the sometimes difficult locks. She came through very slowly, keeping carefully to the middle, whilst Mike kept a look out for any shopping trolleys and mudbanks he could spot. She almost ground to a halt several times but made it to just below the upper lock which was full. Mike opened one gate paddle and could see that the flow of water was trying to push Christine nearer to the opposite mud bank. However, the other paddle has been locked (not quite sure why) so Mike could not balance out the forces. It did mean that we could get a bow line ashore to help by pulling but to no avail, the boat was well and truly stuck right in the entrance to the lock. 

One of the consequences of the leakage through these two locks is that the next pound, which is the junction pound, also runs low and Mike was reluctant to run water down from there for fear of making that unnavigable, blocking boats on the main line from Leeds through to Liverpool, as well as this Leigh Branch. In the end it seemed the only option but this did enable us to get nearer to the lock but then stuck on the cill. With fingers very much crossed we resorted to another trick - backing out just a little, turning the engine forward as fast as possible and then into neutral just before the lowest part pof the boat reaches the cill. This caused the boat to 'hump' over. The danger with this is that if it does not work then the boat is even more firmly wedged but thankfully we were successful! 

A notice advised to use all four top paddles to counter the leakage - with no means of crossing the top gates this means a lot of extra walking for the lock setter! 

With the junction pound also low, even before we ran a little water down, we had difficulty at the lock landing above the next lock, the last two of the Wigan flight. Fortunately a chap who lives next to the lock was painting his fence but came enthusiastically to give us some help.

On to the second of the two Wigan locks. The bottom gates leaked horrendously and it was with some difficulty, and quite a lit of time, that Christine eventually filled the lock.

We were quite relieved to be able to moor up outside the huge Trencherfield Mill to have lunch and a break to recover!

After we set off again we turned the sharp corner to Wigan Pier. Most of the former canal warehouses here have become all but derelict - the last attempt to make use of one of them was a night club. It does now seem that a real effort is being made and the first, to become town houses, is almost ready for occupation.

The next lock, Pagefield, was around the corner and a group of young people were happily making use of it as a swimming pool. They kindly helped us through and we were soon on our way - no problems!

This and the following Ell Meadow Lock were mid 20C replacements for Crooke Lock, again adjustments to the levels created by subsidence.

At Crooke Marina two more Liverpool Short Boats are kept and preserved in operational condition.

Christine has a Zoom meeting tomorrow morning and so we needed to find somewhere with an adequate mobile signal. Just after the bridge and pub at Crooke seemed OK so we pulled in and tested out the connection, at least as it is tonight. Fingers crossed for the morning.

8.8 Miles - 6 Locks