Via the Internet comes this, from Peter Hardcastle, a North-Easterner who visited the Sankey a short while ago. With assistance from another member of the group who chat about canals (and all sorts of other things only vaguely, if at all, connected to them) on uk.rec.waterways Peter has now produced an Internet guide to much of the British canal system. It can be reached at http://www.blacksheep.org/canals/dral/index.htm If you decide to subscribe to uk.rec.waterways note that Peter uses a nom de plume (Dral) when writing to the group.
Our visit to the Sankey Navigation was very enjoyable, enhanced by the helpful notice boards. So, don't get me wrong, I think you're doing a marvellous job... but... when we parked at Earlestown (was it Wharf Road), we parked right next to the lock which is still under ground (but has been partly excavated). We read the notice board, then walked south towards the viaduct. It wasn't long before we began to wonder if we were on the right path. This is because very close by is what looks like a bridle path (a very straight and well-kept grassy 'path' which looked an awful lot like a filled in canal bed). Thus we were left not knowing if we were on the canal path or not. At one point we crossed over to this bridle path, and were a bit confused.
I thought it was a pity that the notice board at the lock hadn't said which arch of the viaduct the canal went through. We worked it out in the end, but to a stranger it wasn't obvious. I thought it was a shame that there was no plaque at the viaduct so people would know exactly which was the canal path, and which arch it went through. It is too important to miss... the country's first canal under the WORLD's first passenger railway.
I was, as ever, using Ronald Russell's 26-year-old "Lost Canals" book, which told me about the chemical factory and the sugar works - all of which seem to have vanished without trace. Eventually we came to a slight change in levels and the "Oasis" came into view, with people having picnics etc..
Although we saw a lot of the canal further south, we didn't go any further north because I had no specific guide. Do SCARS do one which would help me trace the route into St Helens? And am I right in thinking that there was also a fairly long branch which left the main line above Earlestown somewhere?
I have responded to the points Peter makes. Unfortunately, we are between Editions of both the Towpath Guide (by Peter Keen and Colin Greenall) and the Tow Path Trail Leaflets, so I was unable to supply him with anything to assist him on a future trip to the Sankey. I did, however, arrange to meet him and his wife at St Helens when they were returning this way from their holidays recently... but I had to cancel to attend a meeting of Inland Waterways International, of which I am currently Secretary... then that meeting was postponed!
Colin and Peter have revised most of their Guide, and funds are being promised for the leaflets to be re-issued, so we are very hopeful that at least one of these will be available before the end of this year.