Canal Walk: Botany Bay to Bridge 74A

One of the nice things about having my website about the Leeds and Liverpool Canal (and other canals) is the emails I get from people with their own interests. I have had emails from people interested in tunnels, water towers, milestones and World War Two defences. Today I got an email from someone with probably the most specific interest: Skew arch bridges. His interest was in Bridge 74A, a railway bridge between Adlington and Chorley on the former Lancaster Canal Southern Section, now the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Along with a lot of interesting information about skew arch bridges there was a request for a photo of bridge 74A for the wikipedia page. Not a problem. 

Botany Bay

The lucky coincidence was that I was planning to visit some canal pubs today, one in Adlington and a couple by Chorley. While in the area I could walk the mile and a half to bridge 74A and take a few photos. 

milepost

We arrived at Botany Bay at lunchtime but after a big breakfast we weren't hungry so what better way to work up an appetite than a walk on the canal. We parked in the car park of the Lock & Quay pub, formerly the Railway. We crossed the bridge and walked down the steep cobbles to the towpath. The towpath mud was still frozen making walking a bit easier.

Not far along we came across a half mile post, 45.5 miles from Pall Mall in Liverpool. I couldn't remember seeing this one before so took a photo. 

There has been a lot of vegetation cleared and trees felled on this section so there was the chance to find lost mileposts. 

Tree

By Bridge 77, Workhouse Bridge, there were some brand new houses. They were not here last time we visited this section. Much nicer than the workhouse that gave the bridge its name.  We were passed by the worlds fastest Border Collie, zooming along the towpath at incredible speeds. 

Workhouse Bridge

We crossed the aqueduct near Bridge 76, and soon reached our destination at Bridge 74A. A skewed arch allows a railway to cross a canal at an oblique angle. And bridge 74A certainly does that. 

I took some photos, hoping to get whatever details a skew arch fan would appreciate.  

Bridge 74A

Under a Skew Arch

Next to the bridge was a little steam boat.

little boat

With the bridge well photographed we headed back. On the way back I took a slight detour to photo the aqueduct from below. Its hard to get a decent photo of an aqueduct when you are stood on top of it. 

Canal Aqueduct

There are still some impressive mills in Lancashire, but they are a dying breed heading for extinction. 

Crosse Hall Mill (Cotton)

On the subject of bridges, canal bridges are numbered eg 78. New bridges built between the numbered ones are given a letter eg 78A. If a bridge was built between 78 and 78A it would (I think) be 78AA. And if a bridge was built between 78 and 78AA it would be 78AAA. 

bridge 78aaa

We had almost got back to Botany Bay when I noticed a quarter mile post, almost completely buried. This one is 45.75 miles from Liverpool. So in helping one man's obsession I was rewarded with two examples of my own. We got back to the pub and started to review. 

Canal Walk: Johnson’s Hillock to Withnell Fold ~ 4 miles

A cold and frosty February morning is perfect for a towpath trek. It has been a while since I had a decent walk by the canal so this sunny Sunday it was off to Johnson’s Hillock locks to stretch the legs and refresh the lungs. The area around Johnsons Hillock and Withnell Fold is the George Birtill country. In the 1960s George Birtill wrote lots of books about walking around Lancashire and the history of the towns and lanes around Chorley.
We parked on the road opposite the Top Lock pub; there is a large car park for patrons of the pub and, if you are early, ample parking on the road alongside the canal. The pub hadn’t yet opened when we arrived and there were only a couple of cars parked on the road.
Besides the Top Lock is the lock keepers house, a solid stone 2 storey house. The house is for sale, a perfect place to live if you like canals. And not only is it just a few steps from the pub it has a milepost in the garden!
This stretch of canal is one of my favourite bits of the Leeds & Liverpool. The canal is built on the hillside; on one side there is a steep slope down to the valley bottom on the other side is a high cutting. The 7 Locks at Johnsons Hillock are the work of the great John Rennie. The bridges here look to be the work of Rennie too. They are angled up the hillside. These bridges have a chunkier look than other bridges, their arches are higher, you don’t have to duck as much to walk underneath them. A group of shaggy ponies stood on bridge #84 and watched us pass beneath them.
Between Brown House Bridge #86 and Jacksons Bridge #87 is a tall viaduct linking two fields separated by gorge. It’s certainly picturesque though one wonders why those two fields needed such an expensive structure to link them.
The towpath would have been muddy if it hadn’t been frozen, the frost was melting in the sunshine but there was still enough ice on the canal for the ducks to walk on.
At bridge #88 is Withnell Fold an industrial town. This was once the site of a paper mill and now a nature reserve. The sludge ponds are home to all sorts of wildlife. Even though they were frozen over and it is winter we still spotted lots of tiny fish swimming about. The town of Withnell Fold doesn’t look very inviting from the towpath so rather regrettably we didn’t explore it. Birtll informs us that there is a pretty village square surrounded by workers houses. Maybe next time I will find them.
Near to bridge #88 is a half mile post and a milestone with a bench mark carved on top.
We turned around here and headed back to the locks. We just about spotted milepost 49 covered in ivy behind a fence near to Brown House Bridge.
On the walk back to the lock there were more walkers and a couple of cyclists. Back at the pub there were a lot more cars and the tables outside the pub were taken by drinkers and their dogs. We had lunch in the car and then walked down the locks to lock four. Once again I tried to work out the rope marks on the bridge its hook. We left the canal at Fourth Lock Bridge. The farm building is dated 1727 and has the letters P, H and I. I would guess the date and initials mark a marriage. The date is 43 years before the canal was started. I wonder if the couple saw the canal being built.
Further on down the road is the former Navigation Inn, now a private house. The Navigation was once frequented by bargemen working on the Walton Summit branch which came past here. The branch is now filled in and its hard to see where it ran from the road but you can trace its course on google earth. Over the road from the ex-pub is a car park and the surviving quarter of mile of the Summit Branch, complete with quarter mile post.
We walked up to the junction with the mainline. By now the sun was warm so we had a nice sit down on a bench then walked back up the locks to the car.

Canal Walk: Chorley

The rain and drizzle managed to hold off long enough for todays towpath trek. We parked at Botany Bay by the half mile post marking 46.5 miles to Liverpool. We have walked north from here up to Johnsons Hillock before so today we went south as far as Rawlinsons Bridge #71 at the 43 mile mark. A 7 mile round trip was about right given the grey weather.

We spotted the 46.25mile quarter mile post but there was no sign of the 46 mile milepost, it probably went when the motorway was put in.

All along this walk we were never far from the motorways or busy main roads. There were signs of past industry but only one remaining mill. Some places were residential with gardens backing onto the canal. The towpath was popular with cyclists (who had left their manners at home), fishermen and walkers. We saw 5 boats on the move (one of which was going backwards). There were no swans at bridge 77A Froon Street so there was no need to tighten my grip on my walking stick as George Birtill felt he had to on his trek.

Milepost 45 was missing but the half mile (44.5 miles) was there. After Barrack Bridge #75 the area around the canal was wooded and there was less sign of industry. We found milepost 44 which needs a coat of paint.

This section is part of Rennies Lancaster Canal South part so the bridges are his impressive monuments. Bridge 74A is perhaps the most impressive, it is both skewed and twisted over the canal with deep rope cuts and stalagmites. The aqueduct near Cross Hall Bridge #76 is a great work of engineering and design but one few people must see as the view from the aqeduct is as George Birtill said in 1973 one of "one mill in ruins and the yard full of industrial paraphenalia". This river is Black Brook the source of Chorley's industrial power.

43.75 miles quartermile post was spotted as we headed towards the end of our trek. Bewteen Idle Bridge #72 and Rawlinson Bridge #71 there are the remains of a embankment where a mineral railway crossed the canal from the Ellerbeck Colliery.

Mile post 43 is not shown on any map, and is now missing, but under Rawlinson Bridge you can see the milepost shaped mark of where it once was. A sort of trace fossil of the milepost world.

It was too wet to sit on the bench opposite the boatyard so we just turned around and started back. The highlight of the return trip was a big pig in a pen next to the canal.

I doubt I will do this walk again, the towpath was good in places for cyclists but the views cannot compare with the sections either side of this stretch.