John Wareing

And the Glasson branch on the Lancaster has also reopened on restricted hours.

Stourport was heaving last Friday with both private and hire boats and plenty of boats in Worcester too. You're probably just behind our boat with my son and daughter-in-law on it. We had a couple of weeks taking the boat from Scarisbrick to Chester in the last week of June and first of July the long way round (via Autherley). All the hire boat bases we passed were empty except for Anglo-Welsh at Gt Haywood which had a few boats in. Maybe people are avoiding the high peak season prices?

Presumably not, judging by the two posts above yours.

You can go as far as Maghull and up the Rufford branch if you want. The canal will be closed from Monday from Wigan east towards Leeds but not to the west.

I don't think you need any help at Plank Lane - it's certainly not worth someone coming just to do it for you. You can easily move the boat up almost to the bridge controls, get it opened and get through pretty quickly. You will create a traffic queue as it's a busy road but it won't take too much longer than if you have someone to open it for you. In any event there are often other boats around there so you might fine someone to help anyway.

It's on the towpath side since it became unmanned. I misunderstood your comment re Crooke Hall. I thought you just had help between Crooke Hall and Poolstock.

There are a huge number of stations within striking distance of canals, probably hundreds if you include catching a bus into the equation as the OP has. These are all an easy walk from from the Leeds & Liverpool: - James St Sandhills Bank Hall Bootle Oriel Road Bootel New Strand Seaforth & Litherland Old Road Maghull New Lane Burscough Bridge Burscough Junction Hoscar Parbold Appley Bridge Gathurst Wigan North Western Wigan Wallgate Adlington Chorley Pleasington Cherry Tree Mill Hill Blackburn Rishton Hapton Rose Grove Burnley Barracks Burnley Manchester Road Burnley Central Brierfield Skipton Cononley Crossflats Bingley Saltaire Shipley Kirkstall Forge Leeds Then there are some others a bit further to walk to, such as Gargrave and Steeton & Silsden. Of course for many of these you probably wouldn't want to leave your boat unattended.

You will have 5 swing bridges to wrangle before Crooke Hall, some of which still have the controls on the off-side. All manageable by yourself but some a bit fiddly.

Whilst your general point is fair enough Alan, there's a little fake news on the L&L breach. The closure is only from Melling into Liverpool i.e. about the last 11 miles. From Leigh to Melling is fine - i did most of it a few weeks ago.

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.