Runcorn Memories: Sankey Canal optimism abounds

By Runcorn And Widnes Weekly News on Sep 25, 09 05:00 PM in 2000 onwards

BY the time Peter Keen, best known for his outstanding work on the restoration of the Sankey Canal, had completed his show before a large audience of Runcorn Historical Society members, most of us could foresee the day when the canal would be reopened for the benefit of future generations.

A retired teacher, whose many interests include history, transport and archaeology, the speaker presented a graphic account of just how much has been achieved since the formation of SCARS (the Sankey Canal Restoration Society) in 1985.

He was effusive in his praise of Halton Borough Council and the local authority's foresight in boldly going ahead with its ambitious plan to redevelop and regenerate the Widnes Waterfront.

Married with two children, and now living in Rainford, St Helens, he skipped lightly and easily through the work carried out by the SCARS volunteers in restoring parts of the canal between St Helens and Widnes (Spike Island). But it was obvious to all of us that it was their unbounded enthusiasm, dedication and determination which made it possible to undertake such a colossal task.

There was one classic example: a picture of a fairly big canalside cottage which had been demolished and the contents dumped into the disused 'cut'. All the brickwork and masonry was excavated and removed by the volunteers.

St Helens Borough Council had also contributed valuable help with restoration work and today you can take a walk along the towpath from St Helens (Corporation Street to Islands Brow) to Spike Island, or, if you prefer, you can reverse the journey by starting at the Widnes end.

The canal's largest surviving feature, the New Double Locks, were needed to raise the water level to take a branch from the original canal into the area round the present St Helens town centre.

Coming into Widnes and approaching what was once Johnson's Swing Bridge, the canal was severed by an open sewer, running in a concrete channel and spanned by a large diameter pipe which maintains water levels in the next section of the canal. The channel has a sluice gate built on the power station side.

The truncated Johnson's Lane leads off on the far side of the railway to join up with Gorsey Lane and then on to the A562 Widnes to Warrington Road. From there, the canal is dead straight.

Completing his talk, interspersed with key pictorial images, he said the 'Sankey Way' could be restored all the way to Warrington, a feat, which he believed would provide sufficient encouragement for the town's own borough council to continue the project further.

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