You Wait Ages for a Flight of Locks.....

 My trip to Audlem and its canal was the first time I'd been near a canal lock for ages (we don't have them on the Lancaster Canal) but no sooner had I returned from a week's break there than I found myself alongside another flight - this time in Wigan.

I have an old friend who lives very near the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in Mossley, but as Mossley is in Greater Manchester, local lockdown rules mean that I can't visit his house, or even his garden, and he can't visit me. He's not allowed to meet anyone in a house (or garden) but he is allowed, although "not advised to" go to the pub. As a resident of my part of  Lancashire, none of these rules apply to me, which I think means that if I were to visit him at home - or he to visit me - he would be breaking the law but I wouldn't! (If you think that's confusing, other parts of Lancashire have different rules). Last week, we decided that as far as we could tell it would be acceptable for us to meet for a walk and if that walk happened to lead to a pub, then so be it.  

We chose to meet in Wigan - partly for transport reasons, partly because we know the town has a number of good pubs and partly because Wigan Locks on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal would make a good pre-pub walk.  We both travelled by train. I left Lancaster at just after 10.45 on a late-running "Avanti West Coast" Anglo-Scottish express.  After much thought, I'd bought my ticket using the Northern Rail app on my phone (Using Northern Rail because it is now publicly-owned - and not just because it was 5p cheaper than getting it at the privatised booking office!). I've always been very wary about buying electronic tickets, being convinced that my phone battery will run out and leave me unable to prove I have one when the ticket inspector comes round.  But I needn't have worried - as I expected, no-one at Lancaster or Wigan stations or on either train bothered to check.

Despite coming from different directions and indeed on completely different lines, our trains arrived within a couple of minutes of each other at Wigan North Western station. I'd decided that I would prefer to walk down the flight rather than up, so we caught a bus to New Springs, which crossed the canal about a kilometre beyond the top of the locks. Given how empty our local buses have been since lockdown I was surprised - and pleased - to see that the 575 we caught was almost half-full, which I would have thought was about "normal" for a mid-morning journey from Wigan to Bolton.

Duncan and I go back a long way and have a lot of canal boating history. Inevitably we reminisced about previous trips up - and down - the flight and in particular how green and pleasant the flight now appears compared to when we first knew it in the 1970s.  I didn't take any photos for comparison, but I have unearthed one from a trip in 1980 when Duncan and I were part of a crew taking two Willow Wren Kearns hire boats from Middlewich to Leeds (and beyond) and back on a holiday in 1980

Leaving Lock 74 in 1980. Today all you can see are trees.

No doubt present-day holidaymakers find the current scenery more attractive, but it certainly lacks the atmosphere of those days.

To the Pub

We walked to the bottom of the flight and along the towpath to Wigan Pier (well, you have to, don't you?) and then alongside the main road back into town. Our first stop was the Swan & Railway, back opposite North Western Station

                               .

I was in the Swan & Railway one evening in April 1979 when the news came through that the Labour Government had lost a vote of confidence in the House and Prime Minister Callaghan was to resign and call an election. The Labour Party had no hope of winning it and I said to my drinking companion that it looked as if we were in for four years of Tory rule.  How wrong I was; the election ushered in the era of Thatcher and Major and  it would be 1997 before we saw the back of them!  The Swan & Railway has had a chequered history too, becoming very run-down and even closing for a while, but under new management it seems to be thriving again (as much as any pub can at the moment) and even sells a very acceptable pint of Draught Bass, which I much prefer to any of the multitude of over-hoppy and "citrussy" alcopops churned out by modern craft brewers. (So there!).

The Swan & Railway had no food on, so we had to move  to the Raven, another famous Wigan pub once owned by Walkers of Warrington. Being in the pie-capital of the western world we had to try one (with chips, mushy peas and gravy obviously) but sadly, we weren't impressed. The beer wasn't up to much either, so it was back to North Western station and to one of Wigan's newer pubs - "Wigan Central", which is actually built into one of the arches that carry the viaduct carrying the West Coast Main Line;

Wigan Central, with a graphic of a loco that would be more at home on the East Coast Main Line!

As with many pubs in the "Covid-19 Era", were met at the door and shown to a table. Table service has become the norm in many pubs (although not the Swan & Railway, I noticed) but Wigan Central has an interesting twist.

When you have chosen your drink, as shown on the Laser-Display Board ((c) I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue")   you move the sempahore railway signal on your table from "Stop" to "Line Clear", by flicking it up. A waiter appears and takes your order and having delivered it, re-sets the signal ready for next time! 

Ready to Order at Wigan Central

                                     

They didn't do Bass, but did have a very acceptable pint of "Limestone Cowboy", which was described as an "English Bitter", despite being brewed by the very Welsh sounding "Bragdy Cwrw Iȃl.

Whatever its nationality, it was excellent beer and as Wigan Central is only a very short walk from the station - in fact it's just above the pub ceiling - and the bar has real-time departure boards for both of Wigan's stations on display, we decided we had time for another before going our separate ways.

And in case anyone thinks we were being irresponsible, Wigan was removed from the Greater Manchester restrictions within hours of our visit as its infection levels are so low.