Nostalgia, and Wishful Thinking

Our cover shows the Sankey in January, when heavy storms sent flood waters down the valley which overwhelmed the bank at Dallam and sent a torrent into the long-dry bed of the Canal all the way down to Bewsey Lock. It was certainly deep enough to have floated a barge upon.

Wishful thinking, of course, but this is exactly what happened on September 17th, 1955, when the Railway and Canal Historical Society passed through on the LEO in celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the passing of the Sankey Brook Navigation Act.

The pictures on pages 22/23 should, of course, have been published here in 2005, the 250th Anniversary of the same event… but I had it in my head that the trip had been in 1957, the 200th Anniversary of the actual opening of the waterway… so was keeping them until now!

The facts remain the same, however. Within a decade of the R&CHS trip the last cargo barge had sailed the Sankey (1959), and the Canal had been officially abandoned (1963), with moves already afoot to fix the moveable bridges and build further obstructions across its line. By the time this Society was formed, a further 20 years later, major roads, extensive in-filling, and buildings had reduced this historic waterway to a series of isolated stretches of water, with the line sometimes difficult to trace. All we are left with are nostalgic pictures from the past.

But it wasn't all looking back in anger. Halton Council restored the Widnes Lock and built a marina on the canal, and Warrington New Town did even more, and built a marina at Fiddlers Ferry. St Helens Council would follow, restoring the New Double Locks. A park through the Boroughs, soon allowed walkers and cyclists to travel the length of the Canal in lovely surroundings (though see pages 16/17).

However, nothing major has been achieved for many years now. Time to stop being nostalgic about the activity of the 1980s and time for some serious wishful thinking about future restoration.

David Long, Chairman

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