St Helens (Sankey) Canal

Established in 1985, the Sankey Canal Restoration Society has been working tirelessly to raise awareness of what is the first canal of the industrial age. Through the years, its volunteers, with the cooperation of local councils and other organisations, have helped to bring about many changes to the infrastructure of the canal and its surrounding areas. There is now a new towpath/cycleway along the entire length of the canal and the milestone project was completed at the beginning of 2021. Over the past two years, there has been much publicity about the loss of water at the southern end of the canal due to the closure of Fiddlers Ferry power station, which supplied the canal with water. Warrington Council is in the process of leasing the former power station pumphouse and replacing the original pumps with smaller ones to feed the canal as before, with freshwater from the River Mersey. Work by volunteers at Spike Island, Widnes, to retain water from the Mersey at high tide seems to be going well, along with the dams that are in place along this section of the canal which are helping to maintain safe levels for the wildlife. Halton Council is preparing the former swing-bridge site at Spike Island to install a temporary fixed bridge to reconnect the Trans Pennine Trail to the towpath.

_{April 2024}