Sunday 2nd August, 2015 in Wigan.
Overnight rain eased by breakfast time. We had earmarked today to explore Wigan and its industrial heritage, although our first port of call was Sainsbury's by bus for an irresistible offer on Shiraz!
No visit to Wigan would be complete without a trip to see "Wigan Pier", the creation of which is traditionally credited to a joke by George Formby's father and, of course, to George Orwell's inability to find it. "The Orwell" had been opened as a museum called "The Way We Were", but this closed in 2007 and the area has sadly fallen back into a state of disrepair.
Standing on the bridge overlooking Wigan Pier we found this old chap, who had obviously spent his life working on the canals and was visibly amused at the idea of Mr. Orwell desperately seeking the Pier.
Because we had turned left towards Liverpool last night, MM was facing the wrong way, so we turned her round and went back up one lock to moor closer to the centre.
In the afternoon we visited Trenchfield Mill, which was buit in 1907 and incorporated 150 years of experience in Mill design. Last night we moored right next to it (you can just see MM on the very right of the picture).
It is famous for its 2,500 hp steam engine, which is the largest steam Mill engine still in working order. The two sides of the engine are named Helen and Rena after the daughters of the builder William Wood. The flywheel in the centre is 26ft in diameter, weighs 70 tons and turns at 65rpm. Power was transmitted into the mill by 54 ropes set in the grooves in the flywheel. It was very impressive and the volunteers, obviously enthusiastic.
Sadly, due to cost cutting, it is now only run every other Sunday, and today was not one of them. The engine drove all the machinery in the Mill spread over five floors and including over 1,500 machines to spin raw cotton into thread. At its height, it employed some 1,000 workers (mainly women) and ran 12 hours a day, six days a week. Now the steam to run it is produced by a diesel boiler, but just to start it up takes 400 litres of diesel, enough to run MM for the whole summer!
The four upper floors of the building are now divided into apartments and offices.
Outside is displayed a massive ventilation fan from one of the local collieries. Each colliery had at least two shafts so that air could be blown down one and vented out of the other to ensure a supply of fresh air in the mine.
After our visit to Trenchfield, we walked into the centre of Wigan to take a look around. We walked through a large new shopping centre (where - surprise, surprise - there just happened to be a Costa) and bumped into one of M's favourite stars - George Formby with his ukelele.
The rest of the day was spent on MM. M had managed to do a wash and hang it out to dry.
As we had turned her round, R was able to wash her other side before dinner, so she has now been washed all over since we left Worsley (the boat, nor Marion!).
Today: 0 miles, 1 lock and 2.2 hours.
Trip: 148 miles, 58 locks and 93.5 hours.
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