Report from our Talks Programme

Waterways in Merseyside, by Chris Coffey

Chris Coffey is the Secretary of the St. Helens Heritage Society and a knowledgeable local historian. At the beginning of the year he began a programme of regular talks at venues around the borough, based upon the theme of Transport. He covered railways, waterways, roads and air transport, giving a slide show followed by a cine-film presentation for each topic.

When asked to present his programme to the Society he was only too pleased to agree.

He began with his own potted history of the canal's origins, development and decline, bringing in references to local people like Henry Berry and Sarah Clayton. It was known that the coming of the railways did not immediately kill off the canal but Chris could back this up with photographs of flats still serving Sutton Alkali works many years after the railways had arrived.

As a historian he was aware of the importance of protecting buildings and structures and gave as examples the Cannington Shaw bottleworks, now classified as an Ancient monument by English Heritage and the Sankey Viaduct, presently a grade 1 Listed Building. He had also picked up the short isolated canal in Thatto Heath which had been obliterated when the railway cutting was excavated. This was marked as "Old Canal" even on the 1853 map. Another point of interest was his use of "Woodend" as the original name for the locks into the Mersey at Widnes.

Further references included one of the first steam-powered boats which was allegedly tried out on the Sankey Canal and River Mersey, and the last commercial user of the Canal, the Sankey Sugar Works. He even included a slide of SCARS volunteers at work.

It seems that Oliver Cromwell once stayed at the Ferry tavern during his many campaigns. On a more fanciful note, Chris explained why there were so many pubs called the "Griffin" in the area - something to do with a mythical beast which lived at Runcorn Castle and was killed by a member of the Bold family which gave its name to that area.

After the interval, Chris continued with film presentation. The first was an extract from the journey made by Chris Coburn in his narrowboat Progress to raise the profile of inland

Waterways. On the trip Progress travelled from Liverpool up the Mersey to Howley Weir in Warrington, a trip which many vessels must have made to serve that town's industries. Thomas Patten ran a copper works there, and later expanded with his new works on the Sankey at Blackbrook.

Progress first had to negotiate the tidal waters of the Narrows, competing for space with ferries, tugs, pilot cutters, tankers and container ships to reach the quieter waters upstream. Passing Hale lighthouse, she negotiated the fast flowing waters of the Runcorn Gap and entered the Sankey Canal at Spike Island for the night. At that time the Ruth Bate was still intact, moored in mid-stream. Next day the boat continued up to Fidlers Ferry where she was moored while a dinghy was used to reconnoitre the upper section of the river since the current was strong and the dinghy's engine was more powerful than that of Progress. Satisfied with his findings Chris and his crew took Progress up to Howley Weir, making history in the process since she was the first narrow boat ever to reach this site. The high level railway bridge and Crosfield's Transporter Bridge were passed and the entrance lock to the Mersey & Irwell Navigation was searched for and found. On turning round to sail downriver Progress had a considerable current behind her and skimmed along at such a high rate of knots one almost looked for the water skiers behind her. Then it was overnight mooring at Fidlers Ferry before the campaign journey recommenced.

The second film presentation was not shot from a boat but from the tow path. It was copy of a film donated to SCARS by an engineer who once worked on the canal's hydraulics. Made in the early 1980s it followed the Sankey Canal from Spike Island to the Hotties, stopping off at various points known to Society members including the locks, bridges and other engineering features such as viaducts and overflow systems. The views were not present day ones, so they were of historical interest, the Hotties, for example, showed the sprinklers hard at work (below), whilst the bridge at Bewsey, recently replaced, was shown to be in reasonable condition.

It is encouraging that the slides and films have been shown to a wider audience than just SCARS members. Chris had recorded the attendance at his lectures and reckoned that a greater number of people had seen the canal programme, than any of the other talks. He is to be commended for his efforts to bring local history to the notice of the public and SCARS is grateful for his input to its Society meeting.

The Talk which Chris gave to the Society was one of series he has been giving in the past few months as part of a Lottery funded project associated with 'Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008'. Chris sends out a regular email newsletter reporting on the project, and announcing future events (see this page for details of what's happening in June and July). Here's his latest Report on this series of Talks:

Progress Report on Heritage Lottery Fund Project

Between 4th January and 29th April, I had arranged 129 two hour talks/archive film shows on railways/canals/roads/aviation in St. Helens. 35 had not taken place, usually because no audience had turned up, but 94 had gone ahead. I need six more to complete the ton.

The total attendance was 749 which gave a show average of 8, and as many of the audience and venues were new to heritage events, I consider it a success.

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