Last month, a call from Allan Barton alerted us to a sunken canal boat he had spotted in a drained section of canal at Higher Ince. Allan had seen it before when the canal had previously been drained for maintenance so he knew that this particular vessel was quite rare. He referred to it as a dumbboat dating from around 1910. His research has revealed that this was one of only 13, made by the Kirkless Top Lock boat yard, to serve the Kirkless Coal & Iron Co.. All dumb-boats had names and Allan has discovered that the only other one in existence is one named George, which is on display in the boat museum at Ellesmere Port. Allan is conscious of the significance of this vessel and is therefore keen to see if there is anyway it could be saved. The canal was due to be refilled in the following days so, at short notice, a couple of our members managed to visit the site. When Andy Wilcock got there on the Sunday the canal had already been refilled. Fortunately, however, Eric Walter had managed to get down on the previous day so was able to record it and get some photos.
The site is located south of Rose Bridge on the east side of the canal, between locks 82 and 83. Eric found that access was very difficult due to the deep mud, but from what he could see, he thought that the boat was probably intact; however only about 3.3m of the transom was visible together with parts of the rudder and fittings. It looks like the boat was sunk to block off the small basin that exists on that side of the canal. In his opinion it would be very difficult to retrieve the vessel and even more expensive to preserve it if successfully recovered. Its best chance of survival would therefore be for it to remain in the anaerobic conditions of the basin's mud. It will however be recorded and its position reported to the Heritage Environment Record, so that in the future, arrangements could be made for its recovery and preservation, if at any time the basin area was to be developed.
Barges Previously Revealed
It's not the first time sunken barges have been revealed in this way. I was recently sent this article from the Wigan Observer dated 10th August 1935.
'Mr J.J. Fortune, JP of Wigan writes: The draining of the River Douglas at Gathurst in connection with the scheme for preventing flooding has brought to light a number of cargo boats which have been sunk in the mud in deep water. No less than eight of these in various states of preservation can be seen in the length between the road bridge near Gathurst Station and the railway bridge, and quite a number of pieces of other boats are also visible. The timber of the vessels is in a fairly good condition considering that they have been under water for so long, and they are filled with mud it will be no easy task to clear the river of these obstructions to the free flow of water. It is very likely that these boats,, which are all moored to the left bank of the of the river which was then used a the tow path, are the remains of the traffic which used to be carried on along the Douglas before the Leeds & Liverpool Co. acquired the Douglas navigation in 1785. The boats used to be filled with coal and other cargo at various places in Wigan and towed down the river by horses or donkeys to Hesketh Bank and Tarleton and transhipped to larger boats which plied on the River Ribble.' The article suggests the barges had to be removed to free up the river so the chances of them still being there is pretty slim but it might be worth a look. The area described is now occupied by riding stables so permission would be needed.
Next Meeting
Wednesday 6th April. - in the Standish Suite at the Brocket Arms (7.30pm as usual). Last month's meeting didn't go exactly to plan when our speaker, Stan Aspinall, cancelled due to illness - we wish him a speedy recovery. We did however have an entertaining evening thanks to our back up plan - a talk on Haigh Hall (based on extracts from Maria Kitts' dissertation) and a quiz hastily put together by Patrick.
This month will, I'm sure, go to plan as we have our old friend John Johnson from the Horus Egyptology Society. His talk is on Wigan's Egyptian Collection which was recently featured on Joann Fletcher's Immortal Egypt series on BBC2. The collection belonged to Sir John Scott who was born in Wigan in 1841 and worked in Egypt as a lawyer in the late 19th century. His son, Sir Leslie Scott, donated the collection to the Wigan Museum in 1924 where it has remained ever since. It was only due to the efforts of the Horus Egyptology Society however, that the true significance of the collection has been revealed. Their fundraising initiatives have also enabled the collection to go on display in the Wigan Museum. John Johnson has been researching the origins of the collection and has discovered some fascinating facts about where they came from and how they ended up in Sir John's hands. Should be a great talk - hope to see you there. BA.
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