The End of the Sankey - England's Oldest Industrial Canal

The second in a two-part series looking at the Sankey (or St Helens) Canal, England's oldest artificial waterway from the industrial era. In this video I'm continuing my journey from Warrington, where recent flooding has begun to fill in a recently dry bit of canal and another viaduct crosses. I also visit the old lock at Fiddler's Ferry, where the canal is restored for a short section, before becoming overgrown again near the huge coal powerstation. Finally, I look at Spike Island in Widnes - once a busy, dirty place chock full of chemical works and a dockyard railway, now a pretty park where boats can still access the River Mersey.

We'll also look at the reasons why the Sankey was abandoned and why it was never restored, unlike other canals up and down Britain.