A Walk into the Future
by Dave Smallshaw

Various routes have been proposed for linking the Sankey to the main canal system. Three were put forward in a table-top study carried out for SCARS by WS Atkins whilst the company was engaged in producing its 1996 Feasibility Study on the Sankey. Three others have been added by SCARS itself. They are all indicative routes, and none have been surveyed in any detail - they simply show the range of routes available. Nevertheless, they also provide food for the imagination, and Dave Smallshaw, the representative from the IWA's Merseyside and West Lancs Branch on our Executive, was inspired to ramble along one of the routes recently. This is his account of his walk.

With all the talk of feasibility studies to link up a restored Sankey Canal to the main network your intrepid plodder has taken a look at one of the possibilities offered for consideration. In it was found an interesting walk which can be done in two sections if required as, although being a linear route (obviously!), there are public transport links at strategic spots to get you back home again.

The route follows as nearly as possible to the SCARS 1 projected route of navigation and uses public footpaths and concessionary pathways for its entirety. A small part of the route in the Simonswood area is rather overgrown and stout footwear is required. As you get out to the Rainford area there is little cover and weatherproof clothing is advised if there is a doubt on the forecast. You may also need Ordnance Survey maps of the area and the new Explorer 1:25 000 maps of the Liverpool (275) and West Lancs. (285) areas are particularly recommended.

The walk starts on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Melling at Holmes Swing Bridge, just below Melling village. You can reach the bridge from Maghull Station, walking about 1.5 miles south along the towpath. (Merseyrail "Saveaway tickets - all zones" are valid for the walk and will cover transport from all points on the walk which are within Merseyside transport area).

Cross the wooden swing bridge (Holmes) and go up the hill through the farmyard noting the sandstone outcrop on which farm is built. Before proceeding, you could visit this part of Melling, with its tiny church built high on an outcrop and giving fine views over the plain and to the old Delph Quarry meadow site and the Bootle Arms Pub, (real ale & food) is to the left. At the top of the track from the farm, turn right down the field path that carries you over the brook which is our first sight of the intended course of the waterway. At the end of the footpath turn left into Waddicar Lane and then right into Tithebarn Lane until you reach Prescot Road, by Melling House. The way is left here until a field path sign enables you to cross to the next road west. Cross the road here and go slightly right and then left just before the bridge, to the Simonswood Brook at a small country park. By the park sign is a path, which runs alongside the brook, but beware of traffic on these early roads.

The way is along this stretch of urban parkway, which skirts the brook and separates it from the new housing developments on the left. We continue hugging the brook's bank until a tributary dives under Simonswood Lane by a well-constructed culvert. Our way is left here along the bye road and past the venerable Simons-wood Hall, hidden behind extensive beech bushes, and along the straight road until a large barn is encountered on the right and the road turns slightly to the left.

We must now leave the road and go through the large metal gate and search for the path that goes between farm and barn and heads down the side of the field edge. The path is long and straight and is not well-used so care should be taken. At the end of the long path a metalled road is reached and after diving through a somewhat obstructed hedge the way is left and downhill to re-unite with the brook. It is then up the slope to a junction with a green road which passes Voce's Farm on the right by a hedge and, after a stile, reunites again us with the Simonswood Brook. The brook is over to the right and this will still continue to form the basis of a future navigable channel as it passed 'Hesketh Scroggs' and crosses the footpath near to New Bridge Farm.

The brook wriggles its way to cross under the railway where we will meet up with it shortly but we have a slight detour left down Sinacre Lane and the right, past Barrow Nook Hall to meet up with the single track railway. This carries the Liverpool (via Kirkby) to East Lancashire lines, which were formerly the domain of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company.

With the Simonswood Brook we cross under the tracks by Hall's Folly and where the brook winds its way along, we have to travel in a straight line along the path and past the farm buildings of Wild Goose Slack. The brook is running from its headwaters around here and darts back under the path just before we need to turn left to meet up with Dairy Farm Road.

It is in this area that some artificial line will need to be established to link the navigation across the watershed to the Rainford Brook, and the ditches at the side of this path may prove one of the alternatives for this scheme. The path is long and pretty straight as it heads slightly north eastwards, crossing the old coach road and heading past some houses and an old ammunition storage area to a crossroad of paths by Nurser Plantation where our way is right for a short stretch and then left until we meet up with the noise and traffic of the Rainford By-Pass. Be very careful to cross at this point, as our path is straight across and through agricultural and industrial buildings until we meet the old road that leads us into Rainford Village where we will have earned a well earned rest period. Regular buses connect the village with St Helens and you can break off your walk here, if desired.

Rainford is an interesting old agricultural village which has now become somewhat of a dormitory town for St. Helens people but it still retains its farming past with a fine church and various shops and pubs to cater for everyone's needs.

By the village centre and its church there is a short footpath which links us back to the brook, which is now the Rainford Brook which wends its way through the low grassland. We will have to bear right to take up the path for a short distance along the busy by-pass road, which we follow until the next roundabout.

Turning left here we cross over the water again and at the first junction bear right into a residential area which skirts the village and, as the road bears left, we embark on a long straight footpath that edges onto a light industrial estate. At the end of this fairly straight path our way is right into Mill Lane, along which we continue, crossing the brook again and bearing left at Hill Foot Farm to follow a path called Berrington's Lane which runs parallel to the watercourse. A suitable diversion here is to recross the busy by-pass and sample the delights of the 'Bottle and Glass' pub, just up the hill on the other side of the road.

Whichever way is taken the road joins a major traffic route at Haresfinch. The brook twists its way through woodland behind an ugly concrete fence but the land it safeguarded is now derelict. By tearing down this eyesore and without too much imagination the walker can see the possibilities that a navigable waterway might do to enhance the scene.

We leave the brook and turn towards the St Helens town centre at the end of this road until, passing under the railway bridge, we rejoin the brook as it spurts under the busy road to become the start of the remnants of the Gerard's Bridge extension to the Sankey Canal and this can be accessed on the left, just under another railway arch.

The lane is fairly straight and eventually brings the walker closer to the stream by Dagnall's Bridge farm where the path takes a turn left and then sharp right to cross the brook once again. We now find ourselves treading a parallel line with the brook once again but on its other bank now. The footpath meets up with modern roadway now as, with the approach of the town environs, we will have to tread tarmac for a while. The road passes under the East Lancashire Road, if the modern road based on the trackbed of the old St Helens to Ormskirk railway is taken. The alternative is to bear right and follow the stream's course where it crosses under the busy road. This will, however, involve a somewhat hazardous crossing of the semi-motorway but the choice is yours!

You have now linked with the Sankey and can reach the town centre by walking along its course until you meet the New Double Locks on your right. Turn right and follow the path up the locks and continue along the towpath into the town centre, bearing right were the waterway temporarily ends and then left down Hall Street, where bus and train services and all facilities await you.

The walk is, in total some fourteen miles long and is intended to highlight the pleasing rural aspects of a link along this proposed route.

If there are any points of clarification required regarding the walk then please contact me before setting off. The walk is a little challenging in places but the potential of a new navigable stretch of waterway to the Mersey could be in sight and you will be one of the first to appreciate just how good this could be!

I hope to be able to walk the line of some of the other proposed routes, and to publish them in future issues of CANAL CUTTINGS.

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