From Leigh to Wigan.

Saturday, 1st August, 2015 in Wigan.
A very showery day. A few errands occupied the morning, along with a visit to a certain coffee emporium! Around midday, a stream of boats started arriving from the west, indicating that the No. 1 Lock at Poolstock had finally re-opened after its week long closure for repairs.
At 1:30, we decided to start off and had just cast off all the lines when the heavens opened again and it poured with rain. R hastily re-attached the centre rope and retired inside MM to wait for the rain to stop.
By teatime, the weather finally cleared so, taking advantage of a dry patch, we set off for Wigan, saying goodbye to a lovely mooring beside the Waterside Inn.

The countryside between Leigh and Wigan was once a mass of collieries but now nature has reclaimed the land and it's a green space peppered with huge lakes or "flashes" as they are called locally, where the ground has subsided into old mine workings. It feels strangely desolate and lonely, but it is a haven for wildlife.
Someone had erected a sculpture made of old lock gates in the middle of nowhere. It does make one realise how very big some of them are!

At one point, we were astonished to see a young deer swimming in the canal; it had obviously fallen in. The banks are very high and made of concrete, in anticipation of more subsidence, so we were concerned that the poor creature would not be able to get out. We were at a bit of a loss as to how to help it but after swimming from one side to the other a couple of times, it fnally managed to pull itself out using some bushes growing into the concrete. M managed to photograph it just as it was running off.

We eventually came to the two Poolstock locks just outside Wigan and were dismayed at their condition. Not only were the lock gates sadly in need of attention, they were extremely heavy, so much so that they had winches to help boaters open them.  They also have anti-vandal devices, which appears to be the norm around here.

Hardly surprising that one of them had been closed for a week for repairs. The gates looked as if they were about to fall apart. Not a pair that we would want to do again in a hurry!

However, the approach to Wigan itself was surprisingly pleasant. At the junction between the Leeds & Liverpool and the Leigh Branch, we turned left towards Liverpool but only so that we could moor up overnight. Tomorrow, we are planning to see a bit of Wigan and on Monday we will go east again and tackle the "Wigan 21" - 21 locks in two miles - and that is just the start of the trip over the Pennines!!
There are two locks going east just after the junction and there was space to moor above the first lock - but on the opposite bank was a smelly refuse dump with rats the size of cats running across it - so we decided to go on down through the first lock!
It is lock 86, with the numbers starting in Leeds, but it also had a Roman number "22" carved in the stone as, originally, the "Wigan 21" was numbered from the top of the flight and this represented the 22nd lock coming down.

As all the moorings after the first lock were full, we went down through the second lock and found a very pleasant spot right beside the renowned Trenchfield Spinning Mill, built in 1907.

Tomorrow, we plan to visit the Mill as it is open on Sundays and has the largest steam driven Mill engine in the country that is still in working order.
Today: 7 miles, 4 locks and 7.6 hours (including running yesterday for power).
Trip: 148 miles, 57 locks and 91.3 hours.