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Wigan area restrictions


Pie Eater

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  • 1 month later...

What's Really Happening at Wigan?

If this has been covered elsewhere, moderators might like to delete this post, but having just gone up the Wigan flight yesterday (and today!) I'd like to make sure people understand what's happening.

We've just taken the Sultan up Wigan, to get some overdue bottom work done at Botany Bay.

On Tuesday afternoon I rang CRT to check and was told the locks were open twice a day from 8 to 9 am, and 2 to 3 pm.

We arrived at the bottom of the flight at 1 pm on Wednesday, found a few padlocks on the lock gear, but an empty lock and one ground paddle working, so we went in and waited for the lock to slowly fill. It duly did, so we set off up the flight.

We were getting on well when we encountered volunteer lock keeper Peter on his day off, who told us we shouldn't have started to come up, as the conditions are not what CRT had told us.

Here is the real situation:

-- You can only enter the flight between 8am and 9am - whether you are going up or down. After this time the flight is locked.

-- You can only leave the flight between 2pm and 3pm - unless you've reached top or bottom after getting in by accident like we did; in which case you might get out in the    8 to 9 slot, but you will have spent the night on the flight.

 

No-one should be put off by these restrictions, but going east you should be prepared to spend the night in Wigan. Tie up in the pound with the dry dock in it, and be ready to get up early to arrive at the bottom of the flight at 8am.One lock to go up before you start. You can easily walk into town, but there is a convenience store, and a nice pub called The Honeysuckle about 200 yds down the road if you go out the gate by the dry dock.

If you're going west, and you know you'll have to spend the night at the top of the flight, stop in Adlington to do your shopping and go to a cash machine. There are no shops within walking distance of the top of the locks;there is a nice pub, "The Kirkless Hall", which does food, but as a matter of brewery policy doesn't take credit cards.

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Clearly there was confusion, but it wasn't on my part; and as you say, the official notice was issued some time ago.

Perhaps it was unreasonable of me to think that phoning the day before would yield the most up to date information.

In hindsight, I should have put this post in another category. My intention was not to have a rant against the restrictions, but to offer suggestions as to how boaters might cope with the inevitable waits that result.

Judging by the amount of grumbling going on at the top lock, an awful lot of people were unaware of the restrictions until they arrived; and if you don't know the top lock area at Wigan, it is a bit of a desert if you've run out of milk and bread - and the pub only takes cash.

Edited by DRP
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