Reports from our Talks Programme
By Peter Keen

Waterways of the North West, Second Part: by Nigel Bowker

Nigel made a return visit to conclude his lecture on the river and canals of the northwest.

Starting where he left off on his previous visit around the entrance to the St.Helens Canal at Spike Island, he proceeded to show slides of the remains of a steam-powered lifeboat the "Duke of Northumberland" which, during the late eighteen hundreds, had been in service at New Brighton, and had sadly spent the last part of its career carrying sand and gravel for Coopers who were based in Widnes.

Pictures of other craft moored in creeks and old docks off the Mersey revealed the sad end of many working craft, notably the river flats and nobbyboats. Here he referred to the recent fate of the next to last wooden flat "Oakdale" built at Abels of Runcorn in 1951, the last being "Ruth Bate" built in 1953. Apparently the owner of Oakdale had decided to take her to Barrow for repair on discovering rot in her bottom. The voyage didn't go to plan and she had to be beached on the sands at Lytham, which is where she sits at the present time.

Another type of craft that is of interest to the society were the "Dukers". These were built on the Weaver and worked around the docks in Manchester carrying wheat from the docks to Kellogg's factory on the Bridgewater canal. The fleet consisted of six motor barges capable of carrying eighty tonnes, with names prefixed with the word Par e.g. Parfield, Parbella etc and nineteen dumb barges which were capable of carrying one hundred tonnes and were named after the meres of Cheshire and Shropshire e.g. Bigmere and Barmere, the latter being owned by SCARS. Nigel's pictures of these showed some of them at Frodsham after they had been sold to the Frodsham Lighterage Company.

He also took us on a voyage up to Howley Weir in Warrington on the upper Mersey showing us Crosfield's Transporter bridge and some of the wharves that use to make use of the river, but which have now sadly closed or turned their backs on the river in favour of road transport.

Moving on into Manchester one or two shots of the docks revealed the changes that have taken place over the last few years.

A trio of photographs showing a dewatered bottom pound of the Rochdale Canal in 1974 with the remains of three wooden flats and lots of other rubbish contrasted greatly with the restored waterway we have now.

Moving back down the river to Runcorn we saw the docks with ships tied up and unloading cargoes from faraway places like Denmark and Poland and some views of the smaller docks that have lapsed into disuse.

Further down towards Liverpool we came to the graving dock at Garston with its unusual embattlement construction said to have been used to repair warships during World War Two but now filled in.

The final shot of the evening was of a beautiful sunset taken at Fiddlers Ferry.

Many thanks to Nigel for a very interesting and informative talk about the waterways of the northwest.

The Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal: by Margaret Fletcher

The Speaker at SCARS' November meeting was IWA North West Region Chair Margaret Fletcher in her capacity as Chairman of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal Society. She began by showing a map of the canal with its three arms, from the junction with the Irwell in Salford up to Nob End lock flight where it divides into the Bolton and Bury branches.

The MBBC has been abandoned for many years and has a number of obstacles which will need to be removed during its imminent restoration. The M60 crosses its line, and as the Highways Agency is reluctant to allow tunnelling beneath the motorway an alternative route must be found, perhaps along an existing service road. Two aqueducts have been demolished on the Bolton Branch whilst a dual carriageway now occupies that part of the canal which accessed the town centre. On both the Salford and Bury branches breaches occurred in the past which were never repaired. Parts of the canal have been bought by private companies, others built over, whilst yet others have been filled in. Although originally built to narrow gauge it is intended to restore the Bury section to broad gauge to match the other branches and allow a possible future link-up to the Leeds and Liverpool.

Margaret then set out to describe the many activities undertaken by the Canal Society over the years which have resulted in its inclusion on the BW restoration programme. From its early days the Society has always concentrated on publicity, losing no opportunity to bring itself to public attention in local press, radio and television. In addition to publishing a quarterly magazine it has also published a wide variety of books about the canal and its history. Moving with the times it has an active web-site which is regularly up-dated. It has organised guided walks for schools and the public and held a number of small boat events. The Society ran a trip boat for some years, specially adapted for those with mobility problems and has managed to obtain the services of a celebrity in the form of Fred Dibnah who has given considerable support. This is of course in addition to its extensive volunteer work programme which has been aided by WRG, the practical division of IWA.

All these activities have reflected very positively upon the Society. Its policy of communicating regularly with local landowners, local authorities and the waterway movement have kept it in the forefront and brought benefits. Despite the canal being officially abandoned, BW was encouraged to repair more than one road bridge crossing the canal. A Company has cleared a section of the canal on its premises then refilled it with good soil to allow ease of restoration at a later date. At the junction at the top of the locks are some old workshops. These have been partially restored by BW and will be a feature of the restored canal.

Most importantly, the Society has pushed for the recognition of the canal and its inclusion in local authority development plans, preserving the line of the canal from encroachment. This also meant that, when a new ring road was proposed in Salford, the local authority agreed to build it in such a way as to allow the canal to be restored. When a new rail link was planned which would interfere with both the road and the canal, consultations took place which resulted in the road being adapted and the canal restoration hopes retained.

The Society has promoted the canal restoration project so well that Local authorities, B.W. and The Waterways Trust have formed a steering group to facilitate this and the restoration of the MB&BC is now officially under way following a successful launch of the project at the Lowry in May 2002.B.W. has funded the printing of 10,000 publicity leaflets for distribution around the region and has taken a display caravan to major centres to publicise the project and gauge the response of the public. It has also carried out a number of site investigations, funded by the North West Development Agency. Full restoration is to commence in 2004 with an intended completion date of 2006. We wish them luck

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