Wigan Top Lock (off exploring again)

The joys of the Wigan flight

Saturday night ended up being very quiet even though we were moored in the centre of town.  We had rather expected lots of noisy revellers all night and had left a light on to deter anyone looking for an adventure 😉 As it was, we were pleasantly surprised and heard nothing at all apart from a few sirens.

Sunday promised to be a grey day and, apart from a couple of sunny intervals, that’s how it turned out. In fact, it felt positively chilly at times like an autumnal day but at least it didn’t rain. 

We had an early start as we were going up the 23 locks of the Wigan flight and entry is only allowed between 8 and 9am or 12 and 1pm.  We had already been through the first two locks when we came in the opposite direction on our (abortive) trip to Liverpool, but the remainder would all be new to us.

Approaching the first lock of the day, Wigan Bottom lock

As it was Sunday morning and not particularly nice there was no one around.

The numbering of the locks on the canal starts at 1 in Leeds and works upwards towards Liverpool, the final lock being 91 about 27 miles before the city.  We were going up locks 87 to 65 but, when they were built in 1816 they were numbered according to their position in the flight.  These original numbers were inscribed in Roman numerals at the entrance to each lock and most of the stones remain.

The inscription 23 on the bottom lock which is now number 87

At the second lock a woman ran up to me (I assume she was from one of the moored boats we had just passed) asking me which way we were going.  I thought she was hoping we were going up the flight rather than turning south at the junction to head back to Manchester; that way we could share the remaining 21 locks to make things easier.  It turned out she was going in the opposite direction but was warning us not to turn right as the pounds were draining on the Leigh branch.

Turning left at the junction to go up the rest of the flight - with the Leigh branch heading off to the right

The pound was looking low

Once we turned left we were back on new territory for us, as we now will be for the next few months.  For various reasons, such as broken paddles, cumbersome gates and shallow water, we found it heavy going up the first three locks and it took us an hour - we were clearly in for a long day ☹

The locks from this point to the end of the canal at Leeds are only 60’ long so when we were cruising around the north in our old boat which was 70’ we were never able to go along this canal.  Now we have downsized to 57’ we are finally able to come along here.

At the eighth lock we noticed someone was setting a lock behind us.  It turned out to be a volunteer lock keeper helping a boat up behind us.  We decided to stop for a coffee in the lock and wait for them to catch up.

Banbury Blue joining us

The couple were Aussies called (I think) Paul and Jackie and were over for six months; something they do every year whilst they rent out their home, on an island off the Queensland coast, as a holiday let.  They weren’t really Aussies as they only emigrated in 2002 but they were a lovely couple and really chatty all the way up.

It was good to have some help and it only got better when after another six or seven locks some volunteers appeared and walked ahead to get the locks set for us.

Several of the lock bridges had the canal opening date inscribed either side of the keystone

 The locks on the flight are all about 9 feet deep and some of them had timber supports below the bottom gates, something none of us had ever seen before.  I assume to prevent the pressure of full lockfuls of water impacting the sides of the lock tails.

Strange supports

Actually, one lock only has a fall of two feet: it was added to counteract mining subsidence.  We were waiting in the lock below it as we could see two boats in it on their way down.  As the first boat left the lock I immediately recognised it as belonging to friends from around Leamington.  Karen was already at the lock and had realised it was them by the flowers and vegetables they grow on their roof.

Sure enough, Wiz came running down the towpath, shouting and waving her arms 😊 It was lovely to see them as we knew they had taken a few months out to cruise around the north.  They were now on their way back to the Midlands but had had a great time.  

Happy Wiz

Happy Matt

Longer than normal pound (for this flight) just before the top lock

The top lock (number 65 in new money, 1 in old money)

In the end it took us just under five hours; still a long time for 23 locks but we had climbed 215 feet during the day and still had higher to climb once we reach the Pennines.

We decided to call it a day as it was quite pleasant at the top where the there is a junction where the canal used to join what was the Lancaster canal but then reverted to the Leeds & Liverpool. We reversed down the disused bit of the junction to moor up for the day.

Moored up for the day – Wigan flight back down to the left – Leeds straight on

Buddy on guard and probably happy to stop locking for the day

To be honest we felt quite tired and have done so for a few days now.  We have put it down to the stressful night of the breach back at Melling.  Now we’re in pastures new and can take things easy I expect we will soon be back to normal.  Monday will probably see us having a cruise for a few hours as the weather forecast looks quite good.