Canal Cuttings - the SCARS Newsletter
Volume 5, Number 6 - Autumn 2003
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MAP OF THE SANKEY CANAL

The Canal was extended twice - to Fiddlers Ferry in 1762, where two locks were built to the Mersey, and to Widnes in 1830, to counter the competition from the St. Helens Railway Company, who built a dock on Spike Island at the same time. The Canal was built under an Act of Parliament, promoted by merchant interests of Liverpool, for the making navigable of the Sankey Brook, from the St. Helens coalfield to the River Mersey at Sankey Bridges (above), to the west of Warrington. In October 2002 Dr. George Greener, (centre) Chairman of British Waterways, visited the Sankey with Councillors and Officers from Halton, Warrington and St. Helens. Members of SCARS, and the Chairman of the IWA, John Fletcher and his wife Margaret, Chair From time to time the IWA's Waterway Recovery Group joins us at our work sites. Above, their excavator and a gang of volunteers carry on the work of uncovering the lock chamber at Newton Common. In 1845 the St Helens Railway Company and the Sankey Brook Navigation Proprietors formed a new Company - The St. Helens Canal & Railway Company. Thus the Sankey Canal came to be known as the St Helens Canal. The coal brought from the Lancashire coal-field around St. Helens was used to process salt brought down the Weaver Navigation to new chemical factories in Liverpool. This was the beginning of the chemical industry in the region, and the basis of the Indu At Hey Lock in 2001, hopes of restoring the lock with volunteers were dashed when site investigations revealed high levels of toxic material in the infill. The Canal was built for the regular vessels of the Mersey estuary and Lancashire coast - the Mersey Flats. The locks were built to their size, and all roads, and the later railways, had to cross either on swing bridges, or on high-level viaducts, like St The Sankey Canal Restoration Society was formed in 1985. Monthly Work Parties carry out restoration and archaeological tasks along the Canal. Below - an excavator at work on uncovering Newton Common Lock, with Stephenson's historic Sankey Viaduct at Ear The Sankey Navigation Act was passed in 1755. By 1757 the navigation was open - but a completely new cut, almost entirely separate from the Brook, had been made. This waterway was soon commonly known as the Sankey Canal. Status of the Waterway - Dotted line: in water, not navigable, or infilled, but able to be restored. Solid line: a diversion is necessary to complete restoration

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