19/01/2019
This cache is a rather unknown area of Bolton Town centre. It shows an interesting bit of industrial history. It is unfortunately a place that is known to attract drug users. Although I have never seen any myself nor encountered any needles (and that includes my return today) I know they are there because other cachers have reported them and there is a sign (about 500ft from GZ) which asks people to please dispose of their needles thoughtfully. Looking at the place today there's a lot more rubbish around than there used to be. With this in mind I have put a new container at a higher level so you no one has to root around in anything unpleasant, and you do not have to drop down to the river level , its at head height, and there is a spoiler picture now uploaded. This area will change considerably in the next few years with the church wharf development and whilst I doubt the River Croal is going anywhere the future of the cache is uncertain so if like me you are into this kind of thing then find it whilst you can. Also please remember that if you see something that disturbs you you are free to turn around and walk away. However if you don;t like the area please feel free to say so in your log. I've placed a few caches in places like this over the years so I am used to getting shall we say "mixed views" on some my locations!
Original Listing
Here is the one place in the town centre where you can easily get to the River's edge. It's by a forgotten backwater of Bolton. You can tell that this street was once used much more than it is today because there are street lamps along it (which are almost certainly not used today). If you wanted to do some urban exploring and walk along the river underneath the town then this is the place you would start. I think its fascinating spot. It's not easily found, at either end you might think its not particularly nice but I hope you agree that its worth it when you get here. One way is to go down the the Bottom of Church Gate, at the end of Church Bank there is a litter strewn alleyway which will take you to this forgotten st. The other way (and you can go this way from the Top Storey cache) is to take the road (Brown St) to the right of the Dog and Partridge pub. This looks nicer but there is a bit of a pong! Thankfully this has dissapated somewhat when you get to GZ. Now how does the cache get it's name? Well just before the tunnel you can see the remains of a gate. Well when Bolton was a mill town there was problems with all the mills upstream hogging all the water. They devised a system so that each mill got its fare share. What they would do is have a rota so thay say Mill X gets the water between 3.00pm and 4.00pm and Mill Y gets it from 4.00pm to 5.00pm. To control this they would artificially create locks and dams. The cache is placed by once such river controller!
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