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Poolstock Locks


Peter Thornton

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We are at the Wigan Junction waiting to go up the flight tomorrow. Having come from Leigh we have just done the two Poolstock Locks. Are these locks wider than normal? The other strange thing about them is that there is no step across board on the top gates and the bottom gates on the first lock have a windlass and chain to close them. I've never seen that before.

But can someone reassure us that the next 21 locks aren't as difficult as those two!? We are the only boat here at present so look like we shall be on our own tomorrow.

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Sadly, very unlikely. We have "done" the Wigan Flight some 20-30 times. Whilst CRT lock keepers have been around, not once did any assist. Having said that, we happened to meet the volunteer one time (Peter). He was just superb. Assisted when required after he worked out exactly what assistance we required. The best we have ever encountered on the system. 

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Did it today, and Peter was there! I told him he was famous on the forum and he seemed quite surprised!

Took 6 hours with just the two of us (Peter helped us towards the end, he had been busy with a couple of boats going down)

Not too bad, but you're always aware of that looming deadline .........

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1 hour ago, Peter Thornton said:

Did it today, and Peter was there! I told him he was famous on the forum and he seemed quite surprised!

Took 6 hours with just the two of us (Peter helped us towards the end, he had been busy with a couple of boats going down)

Not too bad, but you're always aware of that looming deadline .........

Ah, you passed us heading the other way a couple of days ago, near Dover Bridge I think, I made some smart remark about your boat name...

6 hours isn't bad on your own, we rattled down the flight in three a few days back but that was with another crew.  Fortunately the lockie let us out early at the bottom.  Actually we would have done the flight quicker but for a pair of boats coming up who though it was a good idea to raft up until they got stuck in one of the locks where the gates don't fully open.  Then they couldn't untie the ropes holding the boats together...

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23 hours ago, Peter Thornton said:

We are at the Wigan Junction waiting to go up the flight tomorrow. Having come from Leigh we have just done the two Poolstock Locks. Are these locks wider than normal? The other strange thing about them is that there is no step across board on the top gates and the bottom gates on the first lock have a windlass and chain to close them. I've never seen that before.

But can someone reassure us that the next 21 locks aren't as difficult as those two!? We are the only boat here at present so look like we shall be on our own tomorrow.

I've only done Poolstock once, about ten years ago heading for the Ribble Link, so I can't recall details of their layout so can't help on gates etc

On their construction, they have a curios origin. As originally built the Lee Branch had no locks here, the fall was at the other end near Dover, with mining subsidence first one and then two locks at Poolstock were introduced and the locks at Dover and Plank Lane became redundant, although one still passes through narrows where they once were. 

This means that Poolstock locks got progressively deeper after they were built, and are quite a bit newer than the canal they are on, thus they are not contemporary with the other locks in the Wigan area, and they have been extensively rebuilt in their lifetime. That  said, I think the Wigan flight has been rebuilt a couple of times following subsidence. 

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There were originally three locks on the Leigh branch, two at Dover and one at Plank Lane. The narrows for all three are still there. They were replaced by those at Poolstock early in the 20th century when subsidence became a major problem. Some 80 feet of coal has been removed under some parts of Wigan/Leigh, and the whole area has dropped up to 30 feet. The upper Poolstock lock was originally built from wood to allow for subsidence, and was replaced by the current concrete lock about twenty years ago. The lock at Pagefield is also a 'new' one, and it was originally proposed to have sliding gates to accommodate subsidence.It replaced the one at Crooke, whose chamber also survives. Wigan flight is interesting to study when drained as you can see how the locks have been raised or lowered to keep the lock falls fairly standard after subsidence. The top lock had a fall of over 15 feet around 1890, so was one of the deepest in the UK before being altered.

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The top Poolstock lock was opened in 1901, and the lower in 1915. Dover lower lock was out of use by 1927, and I seem to remember that the upper was used into the 1950s. Plank Lane Lock became level around 1915. Subsidence in this area only stabilised around 1980.

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8 hours ago, Peter Thornton said:

On a perhaps related subject, we noticed a long line of wooden piling on the right, after Leigh. It was set back about a couple of foot from the concrete bank. Was this something to do with works to combat the subsidence?

Without knowing the particulars, the most likely answer is yes, in that the banks have needed constant repair for well over 100 years and periodically the answer is a major investment rather than a patch up.

The issue is that bank protection at water level eventually ends up under water, and subsidence makes the banks less stable anyway, so once in a while the whole lot is replaced and raised. Wooden piling is (a) an historic solution that is seldom if ever used these days and (b ) difficult to extend upwards if it sinks further  Concrete banks can have another layer of concrete added at a later date if needs be

Pluto, my father recalls his friend Stan Kelsall (who was quite a bit older than dad) using Dover Lock in the late fifties/early sixties and one summer arriving to find it was no longer needed. He had been quite rude about it when it was in use, telling the lock keeper that it could be filled by relieving oneself on the way home from the pub, although Stan didn't put it quite like that apparently

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Three photos of the Leigh branch.

The first is one of mine from 1980 showing the first Poolstock lock with its wooden construction.

The second is the embankment resulting from raising the banks in 1967, photo from the Waterway Archive.

The last is by Edward Paget-Tomlinson from 1972, showing one of the boats at Plank Lane used for dumping pit shale into the canal to reduce water depth, and hence the pressure on the banks.

1980 Poolstock 720.jpg

1967 Leigh branch 1, Waterways Archive.JPG

Plank Lane, '72, EWPT.jpg

Edited by Pluto
Editted to get captions correct.
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On 16 September 2017 at 19:01, Pluto said:

Plank Lane Lock became level around 1915. 

I've never understood how the locks became level? I could understand a lock sinking in its entirety and a new one being required above, but I've been through Dover and Plank Lane and they seems, well, level!

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On 17/09/2017 at 17:40, Pluto said:

Three photos of the Leigh branch.

The first is one of mine from 1980 showing the first Poolstock lock with its wooden construction.

The second is the embankment resulting from raising the banks in 1967, photo from the Waterway Archive.

The last is by Edward Paget-Tomlinson from 1972, showing one of the boats at Plank Lane used for dumping pit shale into the canal to reduce water depth, and hence the pressure on the banks.

1980 Poolstock 720.jpg

1967 Leigh branch 1, Waterways Archive.JPG

Plank Lane, '72, EWPT.jpg

Is the embankment where the flashes are now?

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40 minutes ago, AndrewIC said:

I've never understood how the locks became level? I could understand a lock sinking in its entirety and a new one being required above, but I've been through Dover and Plank Lane and they seems, well, level!

There is an interesting consequence of mining subsidence at lock 4 on the Ashton Canal. The water level in the pound below that lock looks to be normal , about 6ins below the wash wall copings. at the other end of that pound, above lock 3, the towpath is about three feet above the water level,giving the appearance of a nearly empty canal. Also, the fall on lock 4 is  now about 3ft but the lock is actually as deep  as the nearby lock 5,about 12ft, with 'full size' tailgates , mostly under water. There are brick  buttresses across the bottom of the lock to hold the walls out.Subsidence was caused by the  Bradford Colliery,closed in the  early  1970s because the cost of rectifying  subsidence  damage  had made mining here uneconomic. There is  still an estimated 900,000,000 tons of coal reserves under Manchester.

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9 hours ago, Cloudinspector said:

Is the embankment where the flashes are now?

No, I think it is towards Dover. There are two sets of flashes: Scotsmans Flash below Poolstock dates from around 1900, and Pennington Flash, at Plank Lane, developed in the 1960s and 70s. The majority of subsidence takes place over a fairly short period, as this section along the Leigh branch shows.

subsidence section small file.jpg

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  • 5 years later...
36 minutes ago, DHutch said:

All very interesting. 

 

Also slightly interesting that the locks are I believe 72 ft, unlike any other Leeds Liverpool locks which are more like 62ft, thus allowing 'full length' southern boats to Wigan.  

All the  locks  ( Hell Meadow,  Pagefield, Dean, Appley Bridge  et al)  between Poolstock and Liverpool are 72ft long, so a "full length southern boats" are able to get beyond Wigan and all the way to the Liverpool link and Albert Dock.  Not down the Rufford Arm though, so no access to Tarleton, Preston Docks or the Ribble Link. 

 

 

The change of lock size is evidenced in their being  two sorts of Leeds and Liverpool wide beam boat:  The  Leeds and Liverpool Long Boat ( 72x x14 ft ish), and the more commonly seen Leeds and Liverpool Short Boat (62 ×14 ft ish).  

 

N

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