The Trans Pennine Bimble NCN 62: Episode #5.5 A Detour to Runcorn Old Town

We go on an adventure over the Silver Jubilee Bridge away from our NCN 62 quest.

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Good morning bimblers and you join me where we left off in the last episode by these two Bridges here in witness we’ve rode here to witness this morning from Warrington that’s for two reasons one the trains don’t start until 10:00 on Sundays to Sunday today and the second reason is we’ve

Blown the bimble ism budget for this month we had to buy a new tripod and a new microphone so that’s 70 quid down the SW so we thought we’ll save some money and we’ll ride here to witness down National cycle Route 62 to do a detour off National cycle Route

62 to runor Old Town so let’s stop messing about let’s b [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] ball only this time things to show me but life just keeps turning by to the way things will be for all knew this time you would still see all that became aack from the way things were Before this is the end of the runor extension of the Bridgewater Canal the original Bridgewater Canal was dug in 1761 between Manchester and Worley and it was all the idea of the DU could Bridgewater Francis egerton he had a large Coal Mine in Worley Worley’s in between Manchester

And Lee he had troubles getting his coal into Manchester so that he could sell it in those days they had to send it via pack horse or via boats down the river irwell which was tidal at the time so it wasn’t always easy for the Duke to get his coal into

Manchester but he’d heard about a canal in France called the canal de midi in fact at the time it would have been called the canal Royal on Long dock that was before the French Revolution when they got rid of the RO family hence the Royal bet in the title Mr uton thought

It was just the ticket the thing he needed to get his Co to Market so he got his estate manager John Gilbert to draw up some plans and he Enlisted the help a friend of the channel James Brinley he proved that he could move water around by getting all

The water out of the wet Earth Cy near Alon and he got the water out of that cury using the power of the river irwell used the water that was seeping into the mine to get the water out of the mine clever chap the canal was so successful

That the price of the coal coming out of Francis egerton’s coal mine dropped by 50% which seems like a bad thing but it made him the cheapest coal around it made it so more people could afford to buy coal which meant that he sold more

Sacks of coal so he ended up making more money and to make him even more money he thought that he should link his Canal to the river Mery hence linking himself to Liverpool and the Irish sea and that’s why they built the runcorn extension of the bridge waterer Canal it was to get

Into the river Mery it doesn’t do that anymore it used to carry on underneath waterl bridge and into the river Mery that would be the Manchester ship canal these days because they built that in between there’s apparently plans to reopen that section and get Canal boats into the Manchester

Ship canal and then into the Weaver navigation incidentally the pub to the side of the Bridgewater Canal are in rorn is where the sitcom two pints of lagger and a packet of chis was supposed to be set do you remember that on BBC 3 in the early

0s in the program it was called the Archer but way back when it would have been called the watero hotel these days it’s called watra Sing UK and it’s a Buddhist temple you know the theme tune from two pint of lger and a packet of

Crisps where he sings I’d like a pint of lagger please and a pack of what does he say there does he say a pack of Kes or a pack of flakes or a pack of plain cheese I can never work it out let’s Bim more it proves me

It’s we have we have the time we were meant to extraordinary life it changed with time you still know me we just keep facing by to the way things were before it should plainly this is the Holy Trinity Church here in Ron Corn it was built in

1838 and it was designed by a local lad by the name of Joseph Harley I can’t find out much information about him but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that he might have designed the old police station here in runor Oldtown if you no different com comment below the Holy

Trinity Church here in runor is what you call a commissioner church or a million church or a water L church it was built using funds from the church building Act of 1818 and 1824 basically we just beat Napoleon at the Battle of watero and we were all

Feeling very smug and very proud of ourselves so the government put1 million aside that’s about £70 million in today’s money and they decided they were going to build some Churches for the expanding population and all these expanding industrial areas like runcorn by 1838 there wasn’t much money left in

That fund so two local Brothers had to top up the rest that would be John and Thomas Johnson they owned a salap works at the banks of the Bridgewater Canal they inherited it from their father John Johnson Senior it went from strength to strength they started making resin and Distilling turpentine and making

Standard cordage I think that’s string to me and you they own shares in the St Ellens and runor GAP Railway and they opened a coal mine in St ellin they owned a shipyard here in runor and they actually became directors of the runor gas company it was all going very well

Up until they got a little bit greedy they decided that they could make money by running supplies to the Confederate Army over in America during the Civil War through the union blockade the first time they tried it it was very successful they got the supplies through and they earned £70,000 that’s about £

7.2 million in today’s money so of course they were going to try it again this time with more ships and more supplies but the second time it didn’t work out for him the ships got caught up in a battle by the port of charlest toown in South Carolina and they were all

Destroyed the brothers couldn’t weather the loss so they had to most of the businesses and all of the fancy houses some of those businesses were bought by a local lad who we’ll talk about later and it could be said that it was his fault that they were running supplies to

The Confederate Army but I’ll let you decide that first we’ got to visit another church that’s bimble we were meant to lead extraordinary lives at over lines days keep moving but time just keeps falling back to the way things will be fall this is All Saints church and it’s possibly

The first church that was built here in run corn obviously not this building behind me that was built much later the first church to be built on this site was thought to be built by e fleder the lady of the mercians queen of Mercier the eldest daughter of Alfred

The Great king of the West Saxons she was the queen of meria between 911 and 918 in fact she stopped being Queen on the 12th of June 918 I think that’s when she died in case you haven’t heard me go on about Mercy in North Umbria before England used to be split into

Two the north part was North Umbria that had its separate kings and queens and the southern part was Mercia and they had their own kings and queens too they used to fight a lot and they didn’t really get on the border between the two kingdoms would have been the

River Mery here in the west and over in the East it would have been the river humba in Sheffield it was the river sheath and in Manchester it’s the ni ditch anything south of the river Mery is meria that’s where I’m from I’m from lford in Warrington and that’s south of

The river Mery so I would have been with eel fleder shouting the odds over the river to all the north umans the original church that eel fleder would have built would have been wooden with a thatched roof apparently in 1250 they built a proper church that’s according

To a local historian by the name of HF starky in 1846 they knocked down that church and built this massive one behind me to how was all those new people brought to runor by all the industry in the area this church was designed by a gentleman named Anthony salvin he was

From County Durham and he first studied under a gentleman named Sir John Nash Sir John Nash did the original designs for Trafalga Square before Sir Charles Barry came in and rid the whole lot Anthony salvin was employed by Prince Albert that’s Queen Victoria’s husband to do some work to wins a

He fitted in some lovely sash windows apparently they looked gorgeous he also restored war castle and Trinity College Cambridge so that’s All Saints Church also very handy for freer’s guitar shop in case you’re wondering what I want for Christmas that’s Bimble up [Applause] and so we reached Journey’s End at least for you lot I’ve still got a ride home I think I shall take part of the woolly back Loop we’ve reached wig Island it’s not really an island it’s a man-made Peninsula when they dug the Manchester

Ship canal they form this little island in between that and the river Mery and if that wasn’t enough having the Manchester ship canal on one side and the river Mery on the other they’ve got old sections of the old key Canal AKA the runor lford canal aka the black

Bear Canal AKA the artist formerly known as Canal it’s a bimble as Paradise wig Island gets its name from a man that used to own a chemical works here the old key Chemical Works hence the name of the canal before he opened the Chemical Works he used to work in the offices of

John and Thomas Johnson remember the soap makers from the banks of the Bridgewater Canal he works as their export agent agent to America and Charles Wick’s brother George wig worked as the financial agent to the confederate government that could explain a few things couldn’t it why they were

Exporting Goods to the Confederate Army through the union blockades L we forget why they started the American Civil War it was all about abolishing slavery and the financial implications of that and to a lesser extent the moral applications I don’t think Charles wig and George wig and John and Thomas

Johnson had many scpl about that kind of thing but Charles wig certainly came out of it better than the Johnson Brothers he ended up buying some of their businesses and I think that’s where he got the money to open his own Chemical Works here in runcorn Charles wig opened his Chemical

Works here in 1865 and they made bleach powder and feric oxide by 1875 they were exporting 70,000 tons of chemicals every year in 1890 they were bought out by United Alkali works and in 1946 that was all bought by ICI they used to make sulfi oric acid here that was up until

1960 when it was left derilict in 2002 they redeveloped it to be a nature reserve a place to W your dog and take the kids on a Sunday afternoon and look at the stunning Vistas it’s quite lovely although I wouldn’t eat the [Applause] Blackberries