Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Wigan, Lancashire

As England’s longest canal reaches Wigan, you’ll find wildlife-rich lagoons where the Industrial Revolution once raged

Published: October 4, 2013 at 10:26 am

When George Orwell wrote The Road to Wigan Pier in 1937, the town in question was firmly at the centre of the later Industrial Revolution’s most challenging landscape.

The mills, collieries and iron-works fed off each other in a self-perpetuatuing sump of despair, and the failings of industrialisation were laid bare.

Fast forward 75 years and this corner of Lancashire radiates the confidence of a town at ease with its past; an unexpected inheritance of the very causes of the sufferings detailed in Orwell’s nightmarish polemic.

The pits and mills have gone, but the artery that provided the original lifeline to the town’s industrial might remains.

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal slides around the fringe of the town centre. Its branches meander from near the infamous pier into a garland of countryside across the low hills and mosslands around the town.

England’s longest canal was opened in stages between 1777 and 1820, taking boats on a sinuous journey across (and beneath) the Pennines. Coal, cotton, stone and cloth were its lifeblood, and Wigan thrived on this business.

Wild again

Tackle the Leigh Branch towpath south and you’ll shortly reach a remarkable waterscape glinting behind reedbeds. Eight secluded shallow basins cover 240 hectares. Known as the Wigan Flashes, they were created by old mine-workings that subsided and flooded.

This is no soulless industrial wasteland; rather, one of England’s finest suburban nature reserves. More than 200 bird species have been recorded; the canal pounds and fringing lagoons are also home to bats, dragonflies and wildflowers.

Heading east from the pier along the canal’s main line, 21 locks raise the cut to a contour-hugging meander through the huge estate centred on Haigh Hall. The elegant Georgian mansion is rarely open to visitors, but the patchwork of woods, haymeadows and byways draw strollers deep into the country park here.

The industrial highway that is the Leeds and Liverpool Canal still delivers the goods to those who seek out its watery course.

Useful Information

HOW TO GET THERE

Wigan is close to J25 & 26 of the M6, plus J6 of the M61. Wigan North Western station is on the West Coast main line; it is also well connected by train to Manchester and Liverpool from Wigan Wallgate station.

FIND OUT MORE

Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust

01942 828508

www.wlct.org

EAT

The Owls at Standish

Rectory Lane, Standish, Wigan WN6 0XD

01257 424242

theowlsatstandish.co.uk

Long established, popular countryside restaurant near Worthington Lakes.

STAY

Bel Air Hotel

Wigan Lane,

Wigan WN1 2NU

01942 241410

www.belairhotel.co.uk

Just a short walk to Haigh Hall grounds and one mile from the centre of Wigan, this hotel is in an ideal location.

NEARBY

The World of Glass

St Helens WA10 1BX

01744 22766

www.worldofglass.com

The history of glassmaking is presented through film and demonstrations.

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