The strip ensures the canal stays in water and has a cycle path leading from Wigg to Port Warrington and Moore Nature Reserve.

The island is named after Charles Wigg, who started an alkali works there in the 1860s to extract copper from its ore.

This company was bought by ICI in 1926 and the original Wigg works was closed to make way for a new chemical factory on the site.

A second factory was built by a company called the Chemical and Metallugical Corporation and in 1933 this too was bought by ICI.

It was made a Local Nature Reserve in 2004 and is a holder of Keep Britain Tidy's Green Flag Award.