Wigan Album

Fast forward 60/70 years, and this same stretch of road is still plagued with flooding. I seem to recall it was particularly bad in late December 2012, when the road had to be closed, along with Scot Lane (near to the Martland Mill railway bridge) because the flood water made it completely impassable. All traffic had to converge on to Poolstock Lane that was the only available road into Wigan. The whole road network just came to a complete standstill. You would think someone somewhere in the Council would have solved this problem by now.

CJ

I think it still floods there like it still does at Asda.

Arthur - the roundabout at the rear of Asda, where Burger King is regularly floods.

CJ

When dad 1st bought a car (Austin 8) in summer of 1954, we used to travel to Warrington to see an aunt of mine and I can remember going through these floods often during the late 50's. I can also remember Father having to keep his foot on the brake after to dry off the brake drums. I can also remember the Bobby on point duty at the Saddle junction further down.fy1xy

Although I remember flooding at that point as though it were yesterday, I can't, for the life of me, remember any "free-flowing traffic system" at the Saddle junction which, it must be said, is not shown in the photo, which is Seven Stars railway bridge.

Now, that's not the saddle junction.

I ride straight through that on my bike no problem it’s only a couple inches deep. No need for the bobby.

If you fell in there, Mick, you’d drown.
And you’d be shouting for that officer to come and pull you out.

CJAlan - it's not the responsibility of the Council - it's down to the Environment Agency. And, to be fair, mitigation measures have been introduced in recent years to try to deal with the flooding of the Douglas - the dam at Bottling Wood, and the raised wall alongside the new road at Southgate. Unfortunately, there's only so much you can do if you put roads and buildings on flood plains - the Douglas doesn't have much of a fall between Wigan and the Ribble, so floodwater can't get away quickly (that's why the dam was built - to store water upstream).

nearest car is a Hillman. rest are fuzzu