The 250th Anniversary Talk

A packed house attended the Sankey Canal's 250th anniversary lecture at St Helens College on 17th September. Staged by the St Helens Historical Society on behalf of SCARS, and in front of the Mayor and Mayoress of St Helens, the Historical Society's chair Evelyn Knowles, opened the proceedings, saying how she had been born and brought up just a few dozen yards from the canal, and then introduced our President Sir John Johnson, who chaired the event.

Sir John could not quite match Mrs Knowles for geographical proximity to the waterway but spoke of his connections with the area around the Sugar Works and how well the post-industrial landscape had been developed to show the canal in a completely different light to what it had been in its working heyday; he also drew contrasts between such landscapes in the North West, and those Areas of Natural Outstanding Beauty in the South East, where he currently chairs the Chilterns Conservation Board.

Sir John then introduced our speaker; Joseph Boughey, canal historian and lecturer. Joseph briefly related the early history of the canal and in particular its relatively benign birth in comparison with Brindley's Bridgewater Canal, five years later. Some interesting comparisons were drawn with the Newry Canal in Northern Ireland, fifteen years older than the Sankey and built by Thomas Steers, boss of the Sankey's engineer Henry Berry when they both worked at Liverpool docks.

The main topic of Joseph's talk was however a set of photos he took in the early 1970s, as a precocious teenager determined not to allow the canal through Warrington and up to Parr to be filled in. We were very pleased to see some photos of Engine (or Haydock) Lock - something of a rarity - and a couple of very clear shots of the canal still in water below Stephenson's viaduct. Clearly a fan of this fabled crossing of the country's oldest canal by the oldest railway, he ventured to suggest that if it were possible to effect some restoration of the canal below Newton Common Lock and through the viaduct to Bradley and beyond, World Heritage Site status may not be far away.

After Sir John had invited questions from the floor, SCARS Chairman, Rev David Long, thanked both Joseph and Sir John for their contributions to the 250th anniversary, and coffee and tea were served before the audience dispersed.

Andy Screen

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