Leeds/Liverpool Canal – Leigh branch

After most of July and August were cloudy, wet and miserable the first weekend of this month signalled the start of a mini heatwave so on the Sunday I took advantage of it and went for a walk along a new-to-me section of the Leeds/Liverpool canal. The Leigh branch of the canal runs for 7.5 miles from the main line at Wigan to the edge of Leigh town centre where it joins the Stretford and Leigh branch of the Bridgewater Canal, and my walk started on the western outskirts of the town at Westleigh.

Parking at the end of a dead-end street close to the A579 a path took me through a small wooded area to the canal; turning left would take me towards the town so I went right and headed into what was obviously a more rural area. Past the back of the local cricket club and a large area of open scrubland all went well until I ran out of path and I was faced with walking several yards along the narrow stone canal edge just a few feet above the water. Just ahead was a footbridge which would take me across to the proper towpath so with Snowy in front and Poppie behind I managed to safely negotiate the narrow bit.

The next problem came at the bridge itself. The steps were steep and the walkway was narrow with open railings – Poppie doesn’t cope too well with stairs now she’s older and there was no way all three of us would get across without at least one of us ending up in the canal so I needed a plan. Fastening Snowy to the railings at ground level I carried Poppie across and fastened her up at the far side then went back for Snowy – and by the time I’d gone up, over and down three times I didn’t need to attend a step aerobics class.

The towpath, part of the Greenheart Jubilee Way, was wide and level and with one or two narrowboats moored here and there and the occasional one passing by it made a very pleasant walk. A distance along and set back off the path were two huge old lock gates standing on their ends but there was nothing to explain their significance, though I’ve since found out what they are supposed to be. Apparently the ‘sculpture’, if you can call it that as there’s nothing sculpted about it, was done by Leyland-based Thompson Dagnall and is supposed to represent a book whose pages unlock the stories of the canals.

Eventually I came to Pennington Marina and its waterside development of modern townhouses and apartments. With 40 berths for narrowboats and canal cruisers the marina, opened in July 2012 by the Duke of Gloucester, was developed on land which had been part of the old Bickershaw Colliery. The first pit was sunk in 1877 and at its peak a network of caverns stretched for miles underground to link with two neighbouring collieries. Bickershaw was the largest and deepest coal mine in the Wigan Coalfield and the last working pit until its closure in 1992 when it left behind the largest expanse of derelict land in the Wigan area. Over the years since then much of that land has been reclaimed and now forms part of a network of countryside recreational spaces, wetlands and wildlife sites.

Looking west from the marina lift bridge

Walking round the marina I came to the Bickershaw Colliery disaster memorial commissioned by Taylor Wimpey Homes and created by North West sculptor Colin Spofforth. On the morning of October 10th 1932 twenty miners were being lowered in a cage down shaft No.3 to the pit face but during the descent an equipment malfunction caused the cage to be lowered too far. It was submerged into a flooded chamber at the base of the shaft and as a result nineteen of the miners, the youngest only 20 years old, tragically drowned with only one surviving; set in the flagged walkway a few feet from the memorial is a steel plate bearing the names and ages of those who died.

I wonder how many dogs can read this

With the marina as my turn around point I headed back along the canal and set beside the section of path overlooking Pennington Flash were two massive viewing platforms joined together with steps in the centre. Pennington Flash is a 170-acre lake originally formed in the early 20th century due to coal mining subsidence and flooding – during the 1960s and 70s the idea to convert the area for recreational use emerged and Wigan Council officially opened it as a country park in 1981. Fast forward through the years and in 2022 Natural England declared the area a National Nature Reserve. The viewing platforms, installed in 2012 to coincide with the opening of the marina, were created by Wigan company Versa Ltd in conjunction with Groundwork (North West) and the names etched on the sides belong to Groundwork employees.

Overlooking Pennington Flash

Almost back to civilisation

Close to where I started the walk was another narrow bridge with steep steps. It would take me back across the canal but I didn’t really fancy repeating the dog-carrying process, however I found a path through a wooded area which took me up onto the nearby main road and from there it was a relatively short walk back to where I’d left the van. This had been my first time walking along that section of canal and I was very pleasantly surprised at how nice it was – definitely a walk to be repeated sometime in the future though next time I’ll make sure I start on the proper towpath.