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Going up through Wigan


davidb

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Good Morning,

We shall shortly be ascending the locks at Wigan in our narrowboat, Is anyone else planning to go that way in the next week or so? Also, I seem to remember there used to be some volunteers who came to help, does that still happen?  I hope there is still water at the top when we get there!

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52 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

The assisted passages via CRT stopped a couple of years ago.

 

There's usually a few vollies around, and they are a good bunch.

It was July 2019 we used them so must of been their last season.

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Our son is currently on our boat for a couple of weeks on the L&L. Yesterday he was due to go up Wigan so we agreed to come and help him up. He was told that single handed boaters get help every Thursday. He started before we got there and a lockie had already started helping. Despite seeing that we were 3 after two locks the lockie set every lock ahead of us. There were a pair of boaters coming down who also had a lockie helping them.

 

With all that we set a new personal best time of just over 3 hours for the 21. Before that I don’t think we’ve cracked 4 hours. The flight is nothing like what it was when we first went up in the late 70s.

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That was more by luck, John.  I don't know who told your son about the assistance on Thursdays (possibly a lady boater on Wednesday afternoon), but they were unfortunately mistaken.  The guaranteed assistance previously offered by C&RT had to be booked.  It was no longer available after the 2019 season.

 

'From Date: 01/04/2019 00:00  To Date: 31/10/2019 23:59 inclusive'  Assistance on the Wigan Flight, Leeds and Liverpool Canal | Canal & River Trust (canalrivertrust.org.uk)

 

As has previously been mentioned, volunteers are often around, but not always.   As has also been mentioned, it's worth having a look at Wigan Flight Crew on Facebook.

 

Really pleased that you have seen an improvement in Wigan.  Cheers. 

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1 hour ago, Pagefield said:

That was more by luck, John.  I don't know who told your son about the assistance on Thursdays (possibly a lady boater on Wednesday afternoon), but they were unfortunately mistaken.  The guaranteed assistance previously offered by C&RT had to be booked.  It was no longer available after the 2019 season.

 

'From Date: 01/04/2019 00:00  To Date: 31/10/2019 23:59 inclusive'  Assistance on the Wigan Flight, Leeds and Liverpool Canal | Canal & River Trust (canalrivertrust.org.uk)

 

As has previously been mentioned, volunteers are often around, but not always.   As has also been mentioned, it's worth having a look at Wigan Flight Crew on Facebook.

 

Really pleased that you have seen an improvement in Wigan.  Cheers. 

It may well have been luck. He was indeed told about it on Wednesday when moored at the junction, although I don’t know by who.

 

Anyway, for whatever reason it was a remarkably easy trip up. A damn sight easier than Lapworth was last September, a flight I would normally class as straightforward.

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On 23/04/2021 at 06:42, davidb said:

We shall shortly be ascending the locks at Wigan in our narrowboat, Is anyone else planning to go that way in the next week or so?

 

We weren't intending to, but our plans have changed.  We'll be going up on Thursday or Friday this week depending on the weather forecast.

 

If those days suit you you are very welcome to share up the flight, starting at 8 or half past.  We'd usually expect to be at the top well before noon if that helps with planning anything.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We ascended the Wigan flight on Thursday 29th April with great help from the Wigan Flight Crew, thanks again for a great service, it took less than a morning starting at 8 am.

 

Yesterday we went up the Johnson's hillock flight single - handedly and it was an absolute pleasure with not rushing it and taking in the wonderful views.

 

Jhillock.jpg.c5fff0643f6cc89e7c9864d1b226ef6a.jpg

 

All the equipment, gates, paddles, ladders etc were in excellent condition and worked smoothly with very few leaks. Well done C&RT and predecessors for keeping this historic infrastructure so well.

 

 

signPost.jpg.b53b5509846187c854458f5c8f6ccd7f.jpg

 

The builders of the canal did a great job in the first place, they even went to the trouble of recessing the bollards on the bottom lock landing to resuce the trip hazard:

 

bollard.jpg.dd2df172d6d3546f3e2f3fef27cc3672.jpg

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