
The Sutton Brook in Sutton, St.Helens
A Sutton artery that connects with the St.Helens Canal
Sutton Brook Photo-Album | SlideshowTHE SUTTON BROOK flows throughout Sutton and ultimately into the St.Helens / Sankey Canal. The brook has been in existence for hundreds of years and attained notoriety during the mid-nineteenth century when it was colloquially referred to as the Stygian brook (i.e. dark and dismal) or 'Stinky' brook. At this time Sutton was at its industrial peak and the brook became the dumping ground for much industrial and chemical waste.

The Sutton Brook Greenway sign in Watery Lane, photographed in September 2008.
Like the other brooks in St.Helens, Sutton Brook also acted as a sewer. Bernard Dromgoole of the St.Helens Newspaper complained in his editorials of:
miles are perfect pests and horrible stinking cesspools.

The Sutton Brook about to pass under Clock Face Road photographed in March 2006
The upper reaches of Sutton Brook are known as Pendlebury Brook which flows under Prescot, Whiston and Rainhill and enters Sutton under a bridge at Walkers Lane. It then traverses Sutton Manor park (aka King George V playing fields) and flows across Brickfields, adjacent to the former Ibstock Brickworks.

The stream continues its journey under the Liverpool to Manchester railway line and into the former Gerards Lane adventure playground. It used to be quite deep here after passing through "a beautiful hillside of farmland and wild life" as described by Frank Bamber - who was born in 1910 - in his memoirs. Much of the land and streams between the Mill Dam and the Reservoir (or Monastery) Dam was originally bought by the London and Manchester Plate Glass company to supply their works with a regular supply of water or was farmed by the Whalley family. This has largely been replaced by the former Beth Avenue estate, now Ridgewood Drive.
The stream then flows under Robins Lane and Ellamsbridge Road and then along Worsley Brow by the side of the former Sutton National School. At this point, it was always locally referred to as the 'School Brook'.
From here it traverses under Watery Lane, near to the Bowling Green pub and turns from flowing north to flowing back east before turning north again in the area of Jackson Street and Parr Industrial Estate where it is joined by the Hardshaw Brook.
At the point where the Hardshaw Brook joins the Sutton Brook, the water becomes the Sankey Brook. As it flows through Parr and Broad Oak, it's joined by the Rainford Brook and the Black Brook. This area is known as the Sankey Valley and the water flows via the Sankey Canal through Earlestown, Newton, Winwick, Penketh and Great Sankey.

Header picture: Sutton Brook in February 2007 as it approaches Mill Lane by the Wheatsheaf
Sutton Brook Photo-Album | Flash Slideshow | Research Sources

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