Engineers Visit the Sankey

We all have our own viewpoints on topics, places and events and it can sometimes be refreshing to hear the opinions of others, looking from different angles. The Society was therefore very pleased to be asked to play host to The Historical Engineering Group of the Institution of Civil Engineers. They make it their business to set time aside on a regular basis to visit locations of engineering interest, often involving canal walking. On Friday, March 2nd they visited the Sankey in its 250th Anniversary Year.

In response to a request from the Group, a SCARS guide (our Secretary, Peter Keen) met the party at Newton Station, (left) a place of historic importance but of limited engineering value. Within a short distance the situation changed when the party reached Newton Viaduct carrying the Liverpool Manchester line over the A49 Warrington to Wigan road. The viaduct was in itself an item of interest, of brick and sandstone with tapered piers supporting the permanent way above. The road follows a narrow valley which also contains Newton Brook whose waters were once utilised by Newton Mill which occupied the site for centuries in various forms. The foundations of this mill survive as does a system of weirs and channels, including a feeder channel cut directly into the sandstone bedrock. When the viaduct was built the mill had to be catered for so a dedicated tunnel was constructed to allow the feeder access to the mill wheel.

The next stopping point was the site of the Vulcan Works at Earlestown which, much to the disappointment of the party had little to show for its great engineering past. Most of the old buildings have now been demolished, to be replaced by modern sheds housing small businesses. The few surviving brick structures were uninspiring especially when viewed from a distance. Even the railway lines which once crossed the road to allow the locomotives to access the main line had been lifted although it was possible to identify the position at which the line passed through the fence, where formerly there had been a halt (rather than a station) for the use of the works staff.

The walk through Vulcan Village (see over) brought further disappointment as the main consensus seemed to be that the restored village had more the look of a theme park than a heritage site. There was greater satisfaction at the sculpture of Vulcan, salvaged from the front the demolished works and installed in the gable end of one of the village houses.

Pictures by Andy (above left) and Stephen Craven (above right) from the excellent Geograph site: www.geograph.org.uk

The party reached the Sankey Canal at Alder Lane Bridges and commenced the walk back to St Helens, stopping off wherever there was something to see. The first was the crossing of the Canal by Newton Brook through a wide concrete channel. Discussion took place as to the best way of restoring the aqueduct across the brook, and it must be said that solutions were many and varied.

From there the walk lay along perhaps the most attractive part of the Canal, past Hey Lock and Bradley Lock on to the Sankey Viaduct. This stimulated much discussion as to its structure, foundations, method of building etc. It was a surprise for some to learn that rather than "Stephenson's" viaduct, its design had been influenced by Jesse Hartley, the Liverpool Dock Engineer, who collaborated with Stephenson following the dissatisfaction of the promoters with the latter's proposed designs.

Northwards from Penkford Bridge the canal is dry, the tow path having been bulldozed over into the canal bed. Comments were made concerning the shape of the landscape and how strange and unnatural it was. Further discussion concluded that the weird valley shape was the result of the long term tipping of colliery waste from the pits alongside the canal and in the immediate area. It was also suggested that colliery waste had been used to fill in the canal bed since there would not have been enough material in the tow path alone to obliterate the channel so completely. It would not have paid to transport the waste very far for disposal and known tips occupied parts of the Sankey Valley which are now clear of such material so this was a logical suggestion.

By Havanah Flashes St.Helens MBC built a timber bridge across the Sankey Brook. This appears pretty ordinary and mundane but to the engineers it represented an excellent piece of design, minimising the use of metal and using the timber as struts to direct the weight of the structure most efficiently onto the load-bearing surfaces. It also allows for the replacement of small sections if necessary without major interference with the rest of the bridge.

Further progress allowed the comparison of the two double locks, the Old, filled in and cascaded, and the New, fully restored to working order. SCARS has had correspondence with a writer claiming that the Exeter Canal's double lock preceded those of the Sankey (claimed by SCARS as the oldest double locks in the country) but the Exeter' is a double in that it is twice the size in water area rather than having two locks together. Perhaps we should call those on the Sankey short flights of locks rather than double locks.

The bridge restoration work at Corporation Street was inspected after which the party dispersed having had, according to comments, an excellent visit to the Sankey. It is hoped that contact might be maintained with some members of the party and that they might be of some assistance in future SCARS projects.

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