Philip Garside

We had a break for lunch at the Friend’s pavilion where they provided tea and coffee (and access to the loo). That gave us a chance to look at the displays about the park which opened in 1910 thanks to a generous gift of land from a local benefactor.

Why bother you ask – 2 reasons – the Himalayan Balsam out-competes the native plants creating a monoculture which is bad for insects and other wildlife. It likes watercourses and when it dies back in winter its shallow roots do not bind the soil, leading to erosion. The Lancaster Canal borders Haslam Park and so far, not a lot of Balsam has reached the edges of the canal from the park. We also wish to prevent seeds moving down the Savick Brook and establishing along the sides of the Millennium Link.

LIVERPOOL LINK—a practical guide A voyage by Maralyn & Jim Nott in nb Muckle

In December 2021 we were chatting to our friends about our fourth trip into Liverpool Docks and agreed we would take them there in April and booked the passage via the CRT website.

Passage to/from the docks is available during the summer months, 6 days a week apart from Tuesdays. Maximum permitted stay is 7 days but can be extended for a small fee. The booking system allows choice of pontoon and free electricity is available on all pontoons. A comprehensive skippers guide is also on the CRT website and should be digested fully.

On Sunday 24th of April we set off from our home marina, Scarisbrick near bridge 27A on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

The 21 miles to the top of Stanley flight locks in Liverpool has 9 swing bridges and typically takes 10 hours. Plenty of safe mooring is available up to bridge 10. • Bridges 20, 15, 12, 9 and 6 are fully electronic. • Bridge 16 has electronic barriers and requires manually opening • Bridge14 is a footbridge and requires a hand cuff key and manually swinging • Bridges 10 and 2i require CRT key and manually swinging (NB definitely 2i ‘eye’)

Just before bridge 10 we moored overnight arriving at 6.30pm and ate on board although the Bootle Arms pub is only a few hundred yards away.

The following morning we set off at 9am through the manual swing bridge 10 and arrived at swing bridge 9 at 9.30. This road bridge is busy and passage for boats is only allowed between 9.30am and 2pm then again between 6pm and 7.30am. Two more swing bridges and 2 hours cruising brought us to the service facilities at Bootle.

Many people moor here overnight as the service area can only be accessed using a CRT key. Also nearby is a large Tesco and several pubs. We emptied our cassette toilet here as facilities are limited in the Docks.

After a further 4 miles at 1pm we arrived at the top of Stanley Locks. (See photo). Passage down the locks is allowed between 1 and 4pm and as normal it was manned by several volunteers.

Descent down the 4 locks went smoothly, however before exiting the last lock I cleared plastic bags off the prop by removing the weed hatch. Previous trips into Liverpool have involved several visits into the weed hatch to remove mainly plastic bags and weeds. This journey was relatively free of weeds and CRT had obviously been busy during the winter clearing weeds and over-hanging trees.

Leaving the locks, it opens out into Stanley dock and we cruised past the Titanic Hotel and the world’s largest brick built warehouse. We continued to head for the clock tower through Collingwood dock .

Tobacco warehouse Victoria Clock Tower We turned left through Sid’s ditch and central docks and eventually into Princess dock taking care to follow the buoyed channel keeping right through bridge EE and into Princess Dock Lock.

We were the last boat down that day and the CRT guy, Sid hitched a ride with us and operated the lock for us. On leaving the lock he reminded us to switch on our headlight as we were entering 3 tunnels. The journey then took us past the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the port of Liverpool Building and then to Mann Island lock which again was operated by Sid. (NB the locks are actually user operated but, except for one of our trips, we have had the locks operated for us by either CRT staff or volunteers.)

The journey continued through Canning Dock, Canning half tide dock and observing the traffic light system into the iconic Royal Albert Dock and finally Salthouse dock and at 2.35pm to our assigned pontoon with free electric.

Princes Lock with the Liver Building

The majority of the pontoons were empty being kept vacant for the arrival of boats from the Mersey Motor Boat Club celebrating their 90th anniversary.

←Litter bin ↑‘Muckle in Salthouse Dock

Plenty of activities are available in Liverpool and we took advantage of the many free museums and sampled some of the excellent restaurants and pubs around the docks. On one of the sunny afternoons, we took a ride on the Liverpool Wheel which now operates to 10pm each day.

On Wednesday 15 MMBC boats were due down (normally a maximum of 6 boats are allowed /day) but unfortunately one of the locks on the Stanley flight stopped working and even more came down the next day to nearly fill the pontoons in Salthouse dock.

Mersey Ferries are now operating evening cruises with tribute bands and we were fortunate to spend our last evening on a trip with an ABBA theme. Cruising out to the mouth of the Mersey at New Brighton and several miles upstream towards the Manchester Ship Canal.

View from the Liverpool Wheel On Saturday the 30th April we cruised back out of the Docks leaving as requested by CRT at 8am arriving at the top of Stanley locks by 10am.

We stopped at the service point near Tesco to empty our cassettes and the journey went well until near bridge 5 when we collected a large number of plastic bags around the propeller.

Stopping at bridge 6 we cleared the prop but within a few hundred yards had to stop again to remove a large, zipped sweater.

Bridge 12 then brought back memories of previous problems. A boater travelling down to Liverpool had been stuck there for several minutes and was about to phone CRT for help. We knew this bridge well. Unusually it has a closing hood over the control panel. This lid needs to be closed in order to get the key through a cut out. Unless the lid is in precisely the correct point the key cannot be inserted (or taken out) and turned to operate the bridge. After going through, the boater thanked us very much. The same thing had happened on our previous trip and then the boat had been stuck overnight.

At the next swing bridge, we hit a floating bucket and the metal handle wrapped itself around the prop and took us over half an hour to unwind and clear.

The next bridge is fully automatic and after checking all was clear pressed open. As per normal the lights started flashing and after about 30 seconds the barriers started to descend just as a car drove onto the bridge. The open button was immediately released, and the barriers stopped descending and just enough space was left for the car to reverse under the barriers and off the bridge. Thankfully on pressing the open button again it continued to function, and we continued our adventure.

After bridge 16 we moored up and then hit the Running Horse Pub for a few beers and a lovely meal.

The following morning, we cruised back to our marina to reflect on our adventure. It was once again an experience. This is a trip to put on your “bucket list”; despite the number and variety of swing bridges and the possibility of weed and litter problems (we have come across boaters in tears in the past over the amount of weeds around the prop, with swear words we will not repeat).

If you take Maralyn & Jim’s advice and make the trip, you will be eligible for the branch’s special plaque—see page 11

Ed

The Haskayne Navvy Seen on the way home

Automatic Stop Gates

In our May edition were photographs of Leeds & Liverpool Canal Bridge 73, Giles Bridge (according to Nicholson's, but known locally as Fredrick's Bridge after the nearby ice-cream parlour), at Heath Charnock and Bridge 68, Red House Bridge, Adlington.

We asked what was the likely purpose of recesses in the stonework. We now think that they were for automatic stop gates.

Janet Dunning has found further examples in her extensive photograph collection. This one is a bridge on the in-water section of the Northern Reaches. of the Lancaster Canal

Janet says that looking at the above picture the position of an automatic stop-gate can be seen on the far side of the bridge and that the stop-plank grooves are a later addition.

This photograph shows the detail which made me realise the significance of the recess.

The bridges where I've thought automatic stop-gates used to exist are sited on long pounds where water loss in the event of a breach would be considerable. The long pound between the bottom of Johnson's Hillock Locks and the top of the Wigan flight was originally the southern portion of the Lancaster Canal.

As regards the support of a rising gate in the raised position, the support would only be needed below water-level but the gate would need to be visible to an approaching boatman.

If you have any information or examples of automatic stop/safety gates please let us know Ed