Johnson's Hillock - Walk Guide - Section 03
At the fourth lock, as at the top lock, the remains of iron bars and wooden rollers protecting the bridge stonework from tow line wear can be found, together with grooves where they have been worn through. Once again, take care when looking at these details as they can be found on either side of the road bridge. Alongside the bridge is the lock office where the lock keepers kept a record of all the boats which passed and the cargoes they were carrying. These details were passed to the canal's head office in Liverpool where bills for tolls were then sent to the boat owner.
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There is both a ramp and steps from the road down to the lock side, and there are cobbles at the towpath end. The canal company owned the farm on the right here, and had stables for boat horses close to the lock. In the 1880s, steam boats entered service, and these could tow two or three dumb (that is unpowered) boats behind them. At flights of locks, such as Johnsons Hillock, horses were stabled for towing the dumb boats up or down the locks. The steam boat system was very successful, operating regular services between Liverpool and the major towns along the canal. There was also a considerable coal traffic from Wigan to the Blackburn area, and lock keepers would have been busy day and night.
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There is no towpath under the bridge here which made towing boats out of the lock difficult. To overcome this, a hook was fitted to the wall of the bridge, the tow line passing from the boat, around the hook and back to the horse who walked in the opposite direction to pull the boat out of the lock and into the bridge. When the boat was moving, the tow line was disconnected, the horse walking over the road to the other side of the bridge and then reconnected to the tow line. A panel here illustrates how the system worked, and how vertical wooden rollers stopped the towline from rubbing against the stonework of bridges. Now continue down to the fifth lock.
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