Northern Exposure: Day 16

A beautiful sunny day, and we set off a little after 8am.  Just around the corner from where we’d been moored in relative peace and quiet, the M60 crosses the canal, along with two slip roads to Junction 13.  At Astley Green there’s a mining museum, of which you can see the pit head above the trees.  From there for the next two miles was a huge fishing match, so it was slow going.  As we got to Leigh, old mills became visible.

At Leigh Bridge, the Bridgewater Canal ends, and the Leigh Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool begins.  The only reason you know is because of the sign.

At Leigh, we went past a big Tesco Extra, with a queue snaking round the car park; there was also a queue, although smaller, outside Aldi.  Both we still a few minutes from opening.

At Plank Lane there’s a new marina surrounded by new houses.  The continuation of the development is under construction on the other side of the road.

Adrian went to press the buttons to raise the Plank Lane Lift Bridge.  We stopped quite a lot of traffic.

At Dover, there used to be two locks until subsidence made them irrelevant.  The chambers are still there as narrows, and you can see the indentations where the gates used to go.

As we’d been going along, we been discussing what we were going to do.  As we have quite a long time available to us, the main focus of the trip had been to go to Liverpool.  However, a stoppage on the canal on the approach to Liverpool has been extended to the end of the month.  We’d planned to fill the time by taking the L&L up to Skipton — but a stoppage to fix a leak in an aqueduct above the Wigan Locks has also been extended; last week’s update said it was hoped it could be reopened tomorrow — but the word on the ground is that the aqueduct is still leaking, and the stoppage could last several more weeks.  Other routes up here are also problematic.  The Rochdale is closed after flood damage.  We’d also hoped to do the Huddersfield Narrow in order to experience the Standedge Tunnel — but the tunnel passage requires a chaperone on board, and it would be impossible to do without breaking the social distancing guidelines.

The upshot of our discussion was that we decided to turn around, and that we’d do it before Wigan.  The last winding hole before the locks was after the railway bridge at Bamfurlong.  It turned out to be rather overgrown and shallow, but we got round without too much difficulty, although we gained quite a few bits of tree at the bow of the boat.

We retraced our steps as far as Pennington Flash, where we’ve spent the afternoon dozing in the sunshine while hundreds of people use the country park for a walk.  In spite of all the calls for people not to see their elderly relatives, there have been quite a lot of multi-generational family groups out together.  Lots of them couldn’t resist having a good look into the boat as they passed, and one little lad virtually had his nose pressed up against the window!

Most of the canal up here is on an embankment, due to the surrounding land having subsided because of all the mining which went on.  We have a great view across the flash, and once we thought it had quietened down a bit, we went for a walk down to the water.  We were eventually driven inland a bit by clouds of midges.  Up by the canal, there’s a sculpture made from huge old lock gates.

14 miles, 0 locks.  (198 miles, 96 lock)