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When George Orwell wrote so disparagingly of Wigan, and working class life there, in the 1930s, he could scarcely have foreseen a time when Wigan would have become a tourist centre of some distinction. But we live in an era of Nostalgia and Heritage and nowadays 'The Road to Wigan Pier' can just as easily be a waterway, an imaginative voyage from the green fields of Cheshire into the heart of our industrial past. Alternatively, you can embark from Middlewich, upon a grand circular tour of the county along one of the best known inland waterway routes, the famous Cheshire Ring. North from Middlewich the canal traverses a deliciously quiet landscape of meadows watered by the River Dane until industry breaks out in the vicinity of Northwich, where a number of huge chemical works overlook the canal. At Anderton you come upon one of the 'wonders of the waterways', an astonishing contraption once used to lift and lower boats between the Trent & Mersey Canal and Weaver Navigation, fifty feet below. Anderton Lift, a wonderful monument to Victorian ingenuity, was out of use for a number of years. However, it is thankfully now fully restored and once again open to the public. Visit www.andertonboatlift.co.uk

Anderton Lift. - Robin Smithett.

A pair of tunnels take you back into open countryside above the valley of the River Weaver, on which the surreal sight of an ocean going ship is occasionally to be seen, gliding through farmland on its way from the Mersey estuary to the inland port of Winnington. Another lengthy tunnel leads to Preston Brook and the Bridgewater Canal. A branch leads to Runcorn, but the main line continues along the broad Mersey valley, through a succession of small villages; at Daresbury you can visit the church where Lewis Carroll's father was rector, its stained glass depicting scenes from "Alice in Wonderland"; Lymm has some nice shops and pubs and an unusual 17th century cross; whilst at Dunham Massey there's a handsome 18th century mansion belonging to the National Trust just a stroll away from the canalside. Manchester's broad suburbs begin to crowd in on the canal beyond Altrincham. At meliflously named Water's Meeting those destined for Wigan turn off the main line and thread their way through the factories of Traffjord Park - the world's first industrial estate - before reaching the second of the 'seven wonders of the waterways' encountered on this trip, Barton Swing Aqueduct, not a jazz band, but a moveable bridge which 'sings' on a central pivot to permit ships to pass along the Manchester Ship Canal.

Manchester

The next port of call on your aquatic road to Wigan Pier is at Worsley, where the story of Britain's canals began in the middle of the 18th century, when the Duke of Bridgewater employed James Brindley to build a canal connecting his coal mines with Manchester. At Leigh, a mill town which lies just to the north of the famous East Lancs Road, the Bridgewater Canal expires and you Join the mighty Leeds & Liverpool Canal for the last few miles of your journey to Wigan. The last coal mine in the area has closed, and the canal passes a series of 'flashes' where rainwater has flooded cavities brought about by subsidence, creating a curious sort of lake district, the industrial equivalent, perhaps of the meres on the Llangollen Canal. And so to Wigan, which has turned the tables on its industrial legacy.

Wigan Pier

The town which Orwell chose to symbolise northern UK in the grip of the Depression, is now a leader in the heritage business. Centrepiece of the revitalised canalside is an exhibition centre called 'The Way We Were' which imaginatively uses actors and actresses to portray life as it was in industrial Wigan in a series of live theatre events in which visitors are encouraged to take part. You can have your knuckles rapped by a strict Victorian school teacher; experience the horrors of working down a pit; or let your hair down at the Music Hall or on a day trip to the seaside. There really is so much to see and do and you will want to spend the best part of a day exploring all that Wigan has to offer. And the pier? Now that would be telling! Meanwhile, back on the Bridgewater Canal, we left those doing the Cheshire Ring heading into the heart of Manchester. They should leave their preconceived images of Manchester as a rain-soaked cross between Coronation Street and a Lowry painting at home, for this is one of the most exciting cities in the land, determined to be as much in the forefront of the twentyfirst century as it was in the nineteenth. Canal travellers can moor within the urban heritage environment of Castlefield, centred on the ambitious Museum of Science & Industry and within a stone's throw of Granada Studio Tours where you can sample the delights of the 'Rover's Return' for yourself. Beyond Castlefield you move on to the privately owned Rochdale Canal and have to pay thirty quid for the dubious privilege of negotiating nine hefty wide-beam locks in close proximity as you pass right through the middle of Manchester. But the experience of traversing the city centre by canal seems well worth the extra outlay, without which it is doubtful if the canal could be maintained as a navigable proposition. All around you Mancunians go about their daily business and you may catch glimpses of the city's spanking new trams, which lend a Continental air to the proceedings. More decent moorings are available in and around the new Piccadilly Village development on the Ashton Canal. Then you face a long, but far from tedious climb out of the city centre through a flight of eighteen locks which lift you up towards a Pennine horizon of moorland vistas. At Ashton-under-Lyne you pass on to yet another canal the Peak Forest and gradually the mills and factories are left astern. Near Marple a soaring aqueduct carries you at a vertigo inducing height above the River Goyt before the canal climbs through another awe-inspiring flight of sixteen locks to meet the Macclesfield Canal. The Peak Forest itself continues high up along the valley side to its Whalley Bridge terminus, a marvellously dramatic scenic detour if you have the time. The Macclesfield Canal oozes Pennine character. The feel of the North prevails, whether it be expressed by nature in the high fells that ride away to the east, or by man-made mill towns bisected by the high embankments and deep cuttings of the canal. Bollington is one of these mills towns, a pretty stone built community of climbing terraces and friendly corner shops. The canalside Discovery Centre houses a shop and information counter and bicycles can be hired if you fancy a change of transport. A few miles further on, Macclesfield itself is famed for the manufacture of silk. There are two good museums; Paradise Mill which celebrates the silk trade; and the Heritage Centre which illustrates the history of the town and traces the story of the Sunday School movement. Lonley dry-stone wall country separates Macclesfield from the next mill town of Congleton. Twelve superbly engineered locks take you down under a looming mountain known, appropriately enough it often seems at this rainswept edge of the Pennines, as The Cloud, and more aqueducts carry you above more voluptuous valleys. Under the shadow of folly-topped Mow Cop, a footpath leads across the fields to gorgeous Elizabethan half timbered Little Moreton Hall, another National Trust property within easy reach of the canal. And then, at Kidsgrove, on the northern tip of The Potteries, you begin the last lap of your circumnavigation of the county, down Heartbreak Hill (mentioned in the Four Counties Ring itinerary) and back to base at Middlewich.

Average cruising time per day for one week:
Wigan Pier - 9 hours, Cheshire Ring - 10 hours.