The Newton Heritage Trail walk

The final walk in the series commemorating the 250th anniversary of the opening of the Sankey Canal was billed as the Newton Heritage Trail, but as walk leader Dave Smallshaw pointed out, the 'Trail' was actually just a sequence of existing, and not always linked, footpath routes encircling Newton-le-Willows and Earlestown. Although described as a 10km walk, the Trail as advertised must be nearer twice that, and therefore the intended 10km walk for this Sunday in September cut a few corners !

We met at Newton station and after introductions, headed down the cobbled approach to the station, behind the Legh Arms pub, and bore right up Southworth Road (A572) before crossing over and darting down a path to reach the embankment of the Newton Lake reservoir. This is the 'source' of the Newton Brook which crosses the canal on the St Helens/Warrington border just below Hey Lock. The lake was created in the 1850s to provide recreational facilities for the landed gentry - judging by the cans bobbing about at the water's edge, it seems as if it's the Carling-ed gentry who spend most of their time there now. The major environmental improvements carried out to the lake in 1991 are beginning to look in need of a repeat visit, but it would not take too much to bring it really back to life again. I understand the lake is still owned by Legh Family Estates, but rented out to St Helens council, and there have been campaigns to get both bodies to do something to improve this 'beauty spot' over the years.

It is quite heavily wooded up both sides of the lake but there is a clear path up the western side (with Willows Park accessible to the west) which eventually takes you into a field, with the M6 passing across the far end. The path takes you to a culvert under the motorway and it was noted that this might be another possible route for a waterway link between the Sankey and the main waterway system - it certainly is wide enough to take a canal and towpath and meets the chief criterion of getting under the M6 without major works.

Immediately the other side, the path rises up to Castle Hill, a barrow (or burial mound) atop which there was allegedly a motte and bailey at some time - worshipping Druids are also believed to have frequented the site. The 2000 year-old barrow was excavated in 1843 and revealed a compartment 21' by 2' by 2' with an arched roof. Apparently there was a further investigation in 1988.

The path winds round the hill and then more-or-less alongside the M6 before dropping down the hill to Rob Lane. Here we bore left, passing under the M6 and coming into the Newton High Street conservation area. Bearing right onto the main road we headed for the Archway, just beyond The Parchments. Now home to an Italian restaurant, the Archway was originally conceived and built for Col Thomas Peter Legh (note the Legh family's prominent ram's head) and was the gatehouse to Haydock Park Lodge, about a kilometre to the north. He was in the army at the time and left instructions with the builders that he was to be the first to pass through the arch. Sadly he died shortly after, in 1797, but his workers were true to their word, and Peter (in his coffin) did indeed make the first passage through. The Arch was moved to its High Street site around 1840 after it became too narrow for the coaches wanting to pass through it (clearly somewhat wider than Legh's coffin) and after an unsuccessful stint as a market place (the original market down by St Peters had fallen away in the 1820s), it became the entrance to existing nurseries run by the Randall family. It was still being used as such into the 1980s. There is a good interpretation board outside, noting other buildings in the conservation area.

We crossed the road to Crow Lane East, where the Oak Tree Inn marks the site of the former Oak Tree Hall, and after a couple of hundred yards turned left into Birley Street. Turning right past the catholic school led to the start of a footpath that wends its way through a recreation park and under the railway. It then deteriorates somewhat alongside the railway and beyond Wargrave Road, where it leads to Earlestown station - we liked the loco weather vane on the station roof. The old Curzon cinema on the corner of Railway Street and King Street (one of three in the immediate area in the mid-war years) is in a sorry state. We passed up Queen Street and Market Street to the war memorial where we had a short talk on the growth of Newton (Newton-in-Makerfield as was) and Earlestown before continuing up Market Street to rejoin the main road, Crow Lane West. Bearing right into Swan Road after a few hundred yards, we decided to have a quick stop at the Swan Inn while watching the local horse-and-pony set indulging in a gymkhana on what was the edge of the old racecourse until it moved to its current Haydock site c1900.

Emerging from the pub to a short-lived downpour, we headed down the track, almost as far as the mysterious stars-and-stripes bedecked flagpole, where we cut down another track towards the canal. Going straight on where the track bears right after a scrapyard, there is shortly another mound in a field, which it seems has never been excavated to see if it is a barrow in the mould of Castle Hill - it is shown on the OS maps as one, so someone either has inside information or a fertile imagination. At the T-junction we turned left along the track which is to all intents the towpath of the canal, the infilled canal to our left having been unwittingly crossed in the meantime. The scenery is very pleasant as you head back into Earlestown, albeit with no canal until you are within a couple of hundred yards of the road. We had been joined along here by Brambles, the dog of a couple of locals who were on the walk and she was having a great deal of fun darting in and out of the scrub that lies in the canal and up beyond the far bank to the site of the racecourse.

With heads ducked we passed under Penkford Bridge, and there ensued the usual discussion about whether it would be easiest to lift the bridge or lower the canal, in order to allow navigation back. The conclusion (for that day at least) was - in common with Loxwood High Street on the Wey & Arun - a bit of both; the next lock at Newton Common could become a half-lock and the few feet gained, coupled with a couple of feet gained from lifting the bridge, might just be enough. The last lock behind us, Engine Lock, has already disappeared from view through, presumably, a mix of subsidence and earth-moving and it would not harm the canal to be entering that lock a few feet lower than it would have historically - a thought for the future.

We noted the somewhat overgrown excavations at Newton Common Lock to the side of Wharf Road, though the top of the lock walls are still visible. There are still hopes that this could be a proper gateway into the Sankey Valley Park, with the majesty (even with graffiti) of Stevenson's 1830 viaduct as a backdrop. We dropped down the hill and through the canal 'arch' of the viaduct, noting the slot for the tow-rope roller and being told of the cantilevered walkway that used to takes horses and boatman through - apparently it got so grimy and slippery that most towpath users were more likely to clamber through the heavy scrub in the adjacent arch than risk the official route !

The state of the off-bank through the former Sankey Sugar Works site was noted and lamented upon, and we then arrived at Bradlegh Lock which marks the start of the watered section, though I was amazed at how overgrown the off-side was. We crossed over at Bradlegh swingbridge to observe the Mucky Mountains (alkali waste from Muspratt's works of the mid-19th century) and attendant interpretation board, then up the hill to the site of the new cottage hospital, due to open in 2008. At the end of Bradlegh Road we crossed straight over into Park Road South, as far as the Co-op, where we bore right down a well-hidden ginnel. This passes the end of Stephenson Street and then you pass through an ornate iron gateway to a rather shabby path alongside an embankment. Past Wargrave cemetery you emerge at a field, with the slowly-being-demolished foundry works on Vulcan Bank up to your right, and to your left, the site of the little-known Civil War Battle of Red Bank in 1648, where 1000 men died in a last-ditch stand by the royalists after heavy losses in Preston.

We headed left for a short while before taking a path back to the left, round the back of the cemetery, and then bearing right at a fork to join Newton Brook. The Brook starts off rural but after a while becomes a green finger between new housing estates, but it is well-maintained as you approach the sites of Newton Mill and Newton Hall and the railway viaduct. Immediately beyond the ruins of the mill, the path is carried over the Brook by a footbridge, and as well as access to Mesnes Park on the north side of the railway, there is another interpretation board by some public car-parking. Immediately opposite is Newton station so this must be the end of the walk. The usual thanks were offered to our guide.

Andy Screen

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