Through Wigan and Poolstock Locks.

 Friday 25th August 2023 in Leigh.

Heavy rain overnight and an unpredictable forecast meant a slow start this morning.  In fact, the rain stopped and the day turned out to be much better than anticipated. A narrowboater going in the opposite direction assured us that he had been through Wigan without any problem. We were a little nervous, as the on the last two occasions we have been through Wigan, there has been no water in the main pound and it was closed again last week due to vandalism - some bright spark had yet again drained all the water away overnight. Sadly, this is a regular occurrence here.

Two locks and two miles later, we were passing George Orwell's famous "Wigan Pier".

Next we turned to go past the huge Trencherfield Mill building and approached the first of the two Wigan locks.

To our delight, we saw that there was another narrowboat just going into the lock and so we were able to join them. It is so much easier to do these wide locks with another boat.

This was David and his new puppy "Tilly" on nb "Marcel".

David and his wife Theresa also had two lovely collie dogs, brothers Ron and Jack. This was Jack keeping an eye on progress through the lock.

The second lock was under a busy road bridge and had an unusual winding mechanism to open and close the gates. It also had a squatter and his tent on the lockside! MM is in the distance, waiting to go into the lock.

The red plaque celebrates the Wigan Flight of Locks, of which these two are the first and second. If you turn north at the junction, as we did last year, there are another 21 really tough locks ahead of you.

But instead of turning north, we turned south and the next two locks are the last locks for nearly 40 miles. This is "Lock 1" of the two "Poolstock" locks. These two locks are almost always a challenge due to very low water levels, and unfortunately, a real problem with toxic green algae.

Today, both locks were working very well and there was plenty of water. With nb "Marcel" and crew with us, everything went smoothly. Phew!

"Marcel" moored up below the second lock and met up with family, who live locally and had come to join them by car.

We continued on for another six miles or so and eventually moored up at Leigh, were we walked into the town for a "few bits" and to find a main Post Office.

Today: 9 miles, 6 locks and 4.7 hours.

Trip: 171 miles, 80 locks and 92.7 hours.