John Wareing

There’s also another thread a bit lower down on General Boating with the same info I started on Thursday, which was when the stoppage was announced.

Of course a stop at the Anchor at High Offley is nigh on compulsory.

CRT have just announced the closure of the L&L between Wigan and Gargrave from Monday 30th July. In the meantime the locks either side of the summit will have their hours reduced to 10am to 4pm immediately.

CRT have just announced an immediate reduction in the hours of the locks either side of the summit to 10am to 4pm. Then, from Monday 30th July, there will be a complete closure between Wigan and Gargrave.

We were also away for the same two weeks, going from Scarisbrick to Chester (the long way round via Autherley junction!). We never had a problem at all with heat inside the boat and sleeping - having two side doors helped a lot. when we got home on Sunday we struggled to sleep that night!

We have just come from Scarisbrick to Chester the long way round via Autherley junction and I’ve seen 4 (or maybe 3, 2 of the spots were within a mile of each other, so it could have been the same one). One just coming into Wigan and the others on the Shroppie.

I'm more impressed with how Steve has managed to go north through Barnton Tunnel going towards Anderton.

The latest update on the Melling breach: - Update on 20/06/2018: Further to the update of 15 June 2018, our teams continue to install the trackway across the adjacent field, which will facilitate access to the site with the required machinery. Contract teams will be working through the weekend and we hope to be in a position to commence the installation of the first dam on Monday next week and the second by Thursday. We have been liaising with the Environment Agency who have granted permission to extract water from the River Alt. Once the dams are in place, we will start to feed water from the river to the Liverpool pound. We are limited to how much water can be abstracted and it will take time for the Liverpool section to recover. We are monitoring the water levels on a weekly basis and will keep you updated as to when boat movement can resume on the Liverpool side of the stoppage. If you have a Liverpool Canal Link booking and need some advice, please contact us on 03030 404040. An update will be issued on Wednesday 27 June 2018.

Plank Lane is just west of Leigh on the Leigh branch.

We’ve just been up to our boat in Scarisbrick Marina, which is around half way between the breach and the lock at Appley Bridge. Daniel the owner was called at 11pm on Tuesday by CRT telling him to get his stop planks in ASAP. This was done by 3am, by which time the marina was down 8”. They have taken the planks out today and it’s still 6” down. The mainline is cruiseable although I guess if you have a deep draught maybe not.

The latest news from CRT also says that the towpath is closed from Spencer’s Swing Bridge, which is east of Burscough. That’s a huge distance and I’m not clear how that could be effectively enforced.

Disability Discrimination Act

The plaques are certainly still available, as we got one as we went over the Summit at Easter. A young woman and her small daughter came out from a house at the summit to offer us one. I've no idea whether they were related to Ray though. My son collects them and he said that it was quite a bit more expensive than others he had bought in the last few years, but I can't remember how much.

Appley Bridge is a large village but most of it is on the hillside some way from the canal at the bottom of the valley. The nearest shop is indeed a trek. The pub on the road bridge was demolished some years ago but there is one by the canal on the offside which was little more than a shed but has now been tarted up into a formula food pub. All in all it's not a great place to overnight but fine to leave a boat for a while. If you want pubs it's much better to press on to Parbold and Burscough. If you want countryside either side of Appley is lovely.

There most certainly is a train station in Appley Bridge. In fact it's a bigger station than Gathurst, which is the one near Dean lock. Pretty much all trains stop at Appley Bridge but only some at Gathurst. My suggestion was to moor on the towpath opposite the private moorings and pub, quite busy with people and close to the station. Mooring either in the side channel at Appley lock or on the main line below the lock are options, but further from the station and also less passing foot traffic.