Canal Cuttings - the SCARS Newsletter
Volume 5, Number 8 - Spring 2004
Back to index

MAP OF THE SANKEY CANAL

The Sankey Canal Restoration Society was formed in 1985. Monthly Work Parties carry out restoration and archaeological tasks along the Canal. Below left: a SCARS Work Party begins clearing out the New Double Lock, our first restoration project. St. Helen Penkford Lock and Lock Cottage at Earlestown, with the famous railway viaduct behind, is a regular Work Party site. As with our work at Hulme Lock, we hope to enable visitors to gain a clearer idea of the lay-out of the site by exposing both the lock str The Canal is a major feature of the proposed Eastside regeneration scheme for St. Helens' Town Centre. A section of canal, (above) filled in decades ago, will be restored as a result. Stephenson's massive railway viaduct at Earlestown was a favourite subject for artists, and engravings of it appeared in many 1830s publications In 1906 the ketch Santa Rosa, the last sailing vessel built at Clare and Ridgeway’s boatyard at Sankey Bridges was launched dramatically in this sideways fashion into the Sankey. Apart from a lightship, the GR Jebb, launched in 1913, thus ended a century There were two swing bridges at Sankey Bridges to ensure traffic on the Liverpool-Warrington-London road could continue if ever work was done on the main bridge. This is the southern relief bridge, c.1905. Sailing flats were built at Fiddlers Ferry from 1859 to 1880, on the site of the closed 1762 lock. The site was brought back into use in the Great War when massive concrete dumb barges were built for the war effort. 60 such craft were built around the co Above left: The 1830 Seal of Sankey's Proprietors. We assume there was also an original seal dating from the Company's formation in 1754, and would welcome hearing from anyone who may have caught sight of it 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

Index for this issue     Index of all Canal Cuttings issues      Home Page

Site design and content © 2002 - 2005 Sankey Canal Restoration Society
Site design by Phil D.Long