St Helens Canal

What route does it take, the OS map is a bit disjunked, I walked the section from Sankey Bridge to beyond Fiddlers Ferry today, Carterhouse towards Ditton, lots of people fishing it, biut very heavily weeded with much of it unfishable, many of the anglers where just fishing in holes in the weed, but I saw quite a few fish come out with carp to 8lb

nobody?

Carterhouse Monk???
You are really trespassing in bandit country there mate. It's the only place I know where the police more or less insist that they acompany you, if they know you are going there. It really is that bad.

I have allways known this canal as the Sankey St Helens canal. It went from a place called the Hotties stretch which used to be called the Mucky Mountains which was one end of it, back through Warrington to Sankey bridges. It also used to go through Ikea and Gullivers world at Winwick
I am also pretty sure that the "Sankey" Sugar works was at the St Helens end. It was a short bike ride from the Vulcan village, (train works) just by the (Fiddle In'th Bag pub).
There is a plaque which says something like, this spot is where the first person to be killed by a train accident died.

A lot of the canal has now been filled in and built over, but the Sankey St Helens canal used to be a favourite bike ride of me and my mates when we were kids. Them were the days when you could thumb a lift off one of the many barges that used to go up and down.

There were only three wooden bridges between Sankey and St Helens, and two sets of locks, one at Bewsey and the other between Winwick and Dallam where I was born. (And they've regreted it ever since) (o There was also a dry dock at Dallam where we used to go swimming.

I think this was the route.
Fiddlers Ferry power station to Penketh and Sankey Bridges, to the seven arches, to Bewsey locks, to Dallam alongside the railway line to Winwick by the Fiddle In'th Bag pub, to Vulcan village in Earlstown.

cheers for that Baz, very interesting, , I thought it may be part of the hotties, I fished the hotties many years again when the place had Cichids in it, I must say I was really intreged by the weed growth and people fishing through what few hole were in the weeds, yes Carter House is a bit isolated I got talking to a few of the lads who were actually bivvied up on the canal at this point, some money has been invested in this area of late with steel birding screens overlooking the Mersey along with a bird watching pier over the mud flaps which of interest is part of the Sankey valley nature reserve and the Trans-Pennine National Trail, I found it a fasinating area, the sections from Sakey Bridge to the Boat yard are no fishing sections, after the boat yard at Penketh you can fish in isolated gaps between the weed, after Fiddlers Ferry the canal is clear though with many fishing this area, where does it go to Baz, does it run into the Mersey at Runcorn and how is this canal fed??

I thought that was Rainhill Baz?


Huskisson may be remembered by historians of pre-Victorian international commerce as an advocate of free trade, and by citizens of Liverpool as a man who cared about their city, but predominantly he will be remembered as a man who fell under the oncoming Rocket on 15 September 1830, the first glorious day of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

I'm almost certain the plaque did give mention to the Rocket Monk, but it is a long time since I have seen it (40 years) so I couldn't be 100% sure.

Oddly enough the Sankey/StHelens canal is fed from the Mersey which passes through the cooling towers at Fiddlers Ferry first. the canal then goes back into the Mersey in a cycle. The dead end is just past the Hotties stretch at Earlstown.
And those cooling towers at Fiddlers Ferry were full of big carp.

I think Chris Baines? had something to do with the landscaping of Sankey Valley.

thats interesting, cheers Baz, yes fed from the Mersey would make sense, I must have a look at that some time, they did appear to be plenty of carp around the coolers stretches and yes Chris Baines would have been involved with the landscaping in that area, I was very impressed with the narures reserve and the mud flats are excellent for wading birds, must spend a day with the scope sometime