A Day in Leigh, Lancashire

Friday 31st July, 2015 in Leigh, Lancashire
We awoke to a bright morning and very still waters reflecting the houses opposite. Where the modern housing now stands, there used to be a ropeworks that made rope out of the waste cotton yarn from local mills. It primarily supplied the boat industry. Unfortunately it burnt down in 1981 having been in business for a century and a half.

We had decided to stay two nights here as there is a lock closed for repairs six miles ahead of us on the outskirts of Wigan. The C&RT hopes to have it re-opened tomorrow morning but, as it has been closed for a week, there will be a number of boats queuing to get through - so there is no point in rushing, and anyway, narrowboaters are renowned for doing everything slowly!
As a result, we had a day in Leigh, and very nice it was too. This is a very pleasant mooring next to the Waterside Inn, a former warehouse.

We took the opportunity to wash MM down, in particular because of soot smuts on the roof; obviously someone had a coal fire in the marina where MM spent the last three weeks.  The smuts have to be scrubbed off, a laborious process. MM generated a lot of interest from passing locals and we were bombarded with questions. Who knows, some of those may go out and rent, or even buy, a narrowboat one day! From tiny acorns and all that...
Only fifty yards away from our mooring is a good sized branch of Aldi. We needed the usual "few bits" and R suggested that we call in there to buy the heavier items in order to save his arms.

M, who has hitherto disdained Aldi, agreed that this was a good idea - on condition that we went on to the M&S Food store afterwards for the rest. But no!! We were most impressed with Aldi! The shop was light and airy, had wide aisles, all the produce was nicely packaged and presented and - to M's delight - the fruit and veg were excellent.We emerged with two full carrier bags, having spent a lot less than we expected!

M compared the itemised bill with Wednesday's from M&S and found that most of the items were around half the price!
R has cunningly researched the location of every Costa we are likely to find on our travels on the Leeds and Liverpool! So, no longer needing to go to M&S, we set off to reward ourselves at the local Costa located inside a pleasant indoor shopping area that incorporated a sizeable indoor market.

The main street through Leigh has been pedestrianised and it was crowded and bustling. We couldn't help thinking what a shame it is that the same approach was not adopted in Runcorn to give the town some life and character.
On the way back, we did go via the M&S Food store, which was next to a very large Sainsbury's, in order to research a possible purchase of wine (we do already have a plentiful supply on board, but we have a useful voucher from Sainsbury's!). M came out of the M&S store without buying anything. "Is she feeling alright?" thought R in surprise!
We walked back along the towpath, although the path from the road to the towpath felt more like the jungle!

We had a very relaxed afternoon on MM and M prepared an experimental salad dish - chicken, avocado and mango salad. All the veg came from Aldi and it was delicious!!
Today: MM had a rest.