Wigan Archives - Beau Romer

7 April 202310 April 2023

B.O.B.

Four Bickerstaffes, all lined up in a row

That’s Back On Board, or Bevy of (Beautiful) Bickerstaffes. Take your choice.

When I last updated it was September last year. We were on the Shropshire Union Canal. After that we cruised up to Chester, where we had a rendevous with Stu and Carrie, two of our American family. We took them to Llangollen before returning Beau Romer to Fettlers Wharf Marina for the winter. Martyn and I spent the winter in Wareham in the house.

Happy memories from 2022, crossing the Chirk Aqueduct from England to Wales with Stu and Carrie

Now it’s April and the 2023 crusing season has begun. We have plans to come all the way down to Bristol, and after that, who knows? We have set off with Andrew and Penny on Seren Glas and are right now at the very end of the Leigh Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Pennington Flash, which is beautiful and peaceful. Many people are strolling the towpath enjoying a lovely warm and sunny Good Friday. We are moored up with three other Bickerstaffes; as well as Seren Glas, Perfect Harmony with Sheila and Gary on Board, and The Last Derbyshire Miner crewed by Mark. We’re also enjoying canine company in the shape of Yogi and Zac.

Passing Nigel and Diane, our marina neighbours, and friends on nb Escapology just before Parbold

We spent two nights in Wigan, as Wednesday was miserable and wet. This early in the season we don’t need to cruise in the rain, so we just hunkered down. Wigan is famous for several things, Wigan Pier I’ve mentioned before, Northern Soul music I haven’t (we’ll save that one) and I don’t think I’ve talked about pies. Wigan pies are reputedly delicious, although I’ve never tried one, and people from Wigan are known as Pie Eaters. I found out why, and it’s nothing to do with pastries. It goes back to the General Strike in 1926 when the miners went on strike in protest about pay and conditions. Wigan was heavily reliant on coal mining and Wigan miners were starved back to work before the miners in the nearby town of Leigh, who scornfully named them Pie Eaters because they had been forced to eat humble pie and give in first. One of the reasons we’re on the boat is because I love discovering these little titbits of history.

This year I think I’m going to add a few cruising stats to the blog. So far we have travelled 19 miles, 3.75 furlongs in 10.9 hours, come through 15 locks, and dealt with 6 moveable bridges.

Gary and Sheila kindly helping us through the Deep Lock at Appley Bridge

2 June 20212 June 2021

Wigan – and on, and on

Most people know George Orwell of 1984 fame wrote a book called the Road to Wigan Pier, but in 1946 he also wrote an essay in which he described his ideal pub – the Moon Under Water. In his honour, I hope, there is a Wetherspoons pub in Wigan called The Moon Under Water. Is it the ideal pub? Of course not. But we still had lunch and a couple of drinks there.

In the event we got very well acquainted with Wigan indeed. The plan was we would cruise into Wigan after another nice weekend at Parbold, and go up the 21 locks of the Wigan Flight with Sean on nb Eeyore on Tuesday. But you know what happens with plans? Things tend to happen to wreck them. We got a message just before we set off that there was a car in one of the lock pounds on the Wigan flight, which was closed to boats until it could be removed.

We entered Wigan a little nervously. We’d heard many tales of antisocial behaviour towards boats and boaters, and it wasn’t a place we were anxious to stay. I can only speak from our experience, but that proved to be completely false. We had a quiet mooring and no bother. It helped that there were two boats together. We had plenty of time to explore the town, which has a couple of nice parks and a decent shopping centre. It was perfectly pleasant. On Thursday we watched as the CRT pulled the car, stolen of course, out of the canal.

On Saturday after the queue of boats had cleared on Friday, we tackled the Wigan flight and an extra lock at the bottom for good measure. We had lots of help from the Wigan Flight Crew, all hardy volunteers, and from Trev who got up at 6.30am just to come and help us. Thanks Trev! We got to the top in under 4 hours, where we said au revoir to Sean.

Wigan Flight – up the creek with 138 paddles since 1816!

The next day I got my reward for all those locks. We could have driven to Fredericks Ice Cream Parlour in 20 minutes from our home mooring in Rufford. Far more fun to wait until we could moor up outside on a sunny bank holiday Sunday.

I worked for it, I deserved it, and it totally met my expectations

Then it was on to Johnsons Hillock Locks. At the top we were meeting Trev and Jen to cruise to Skipton with them over the next couple of weeks. It was a good day, the sun was shining, the locks were benign, we had another boat and crew to share with – until I fell over my own feet, or a capstan depending on who tells the story – and literally faceplanted the towpath. Result one split lip, two knees like tennis balls and a badly bruised hand. There will be no photos of me on this blog or social media until I look a little less like someone who’s just done a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson. I have to thank Therese on nb Nauti Buoy who sacrificed the ice that was going into her G&T to my bruises.

So yesterday we went nowhere. Trev suggested a mooring at a lovely hamlet called Withnell Fold, and we had a day of leisure, and for me, recovery. We cleaned the boat and Martyn and I went exploring. It’s a peaceful and picturesque little place, basically a square with houses on three sides and a set of stocks completing it. The village grew up in 1834 to house the workers from a paper mill on the banks of the canal, now long closed, although reputed to have made the paper for our bank notes among other products. If it hadn’t been for my accident we never would have found it. There’s lots of information about it online.

Update on offererings to the Canal Gods:

Another side fender on the Wigan flight

Jenny and Ralf enjoying life on the towpath. What a treasure he is, and what a good boy at only 7 months old

2 September 20202 September 2020

Wigan is a desert

On Sunday we managed to get off the Rufford Branch at Lathom Junction and on to the Leeds and Liverpool mainline. We turned left, headed towards Leeds and moored in Parbold for a pint and fish and chips. The next morning we indulged in breakfast from the Yours is the Earth cafe. I’ll spare you the photo of the breakfast bagel with bacon, tomato, avocado and poached egg. You’ll have to take my word that it was very, very good. Sadly we had to get takeaway thanks to the Chancellor, they didn’t have a single space to eat in left all day.

It’s Bank Holiday Monday people. Why is everyone out?

That breakfast cost us more than the money. We’d planned on getting through Wigan on Monday. Three of the locks closed at 4 pm and we wouldn’t get through them in time, so we only chugged 3.5 miles down the canal.

Holding the boat under the M6. Doesn’t he look pleased with himself? And doesn’t Beau Romer look beautiful?

Just before Dean Lock, a fisherman was struggling to land a fish and gesturing frantically to us to stop. Putting Beau Romer hard into reverse I brought her to a stop and we watched him land an enormous carp. Was he pleased with himself! As we passed he shouted he’d been after that fish for 18 days. Imagine if I’d been responsible for him losing it? No photo sadly, I was driving.

We moored up just before Crooke. It was a lovely mooring, very peaceful, and we slept like logs.

The next morning we got going on time. I was a bit apprehensive about Wigan, but cruising through it was quite lovely.

Here’s today’s quirky lock mechanism. Instead of pushing the gates open and closed, you have to wind a giant handle.

All the way through Wigan we searched for a water point. The maps showed two. Where they’ve gone goodness knows. And, confident we’d easily get the tank topped up, I’d been doing the laundry, so we were running low.

At Wigan Junction we turned sharp right down the Leigh Branch in blazing sunshine. The 21 locks of the Wigan Flight would have to wait for another day. We’d expected the Leigh Branch to be really pretty, and sometimes it is, but I think the mainline scenery was nicer. The Leigh Branch runs through mining country. The resulting subsidence created lakes – or flashes as they’re called – but you only get glimpses from the canal. We had to get through another timed swing bridge at Plank Lane, we were cutting it fine, and the water was on the other side. We made it with 10 minutes to spare. The bridge wasn’t a swing bridge at all; it was our first lift bridge.

Plank Lane Swing Bridge – I think the Nicholson’s Guide needs to update the description

Last night we found a lovely mooring overlooking Pennington Flash, a country park full of walkers and cyclists. Although we were a bit nonplussed when a police car drove up the towpath at dusk, we think we may stay here for a day or two.

All tucked up for the night at Pennington Flash

So what mishaps have happened in the past few days? I cut my finger trying to avoid a lady on the towpath who seemed oblivious I was trying to get off the boat to moor up and wouldn’t stop talking or get out of my way. But it was nothing a couple of plasters wouldn’t handle. Martyn managed to wound himself on a lock spindle and to my horror, drove the boat into a tree while he was distracted looking at Wigan Athletic’s football stadium. We lost a fender in that little episode (surprise, surprise). The most annoying incident was Martyn dropped his Fitbit somewhere while locking in Wigan, but he has a birthday next month, so I’ll have to count his steps until then. It stops him beating my step count every day anyway!