Just how many waterways do we have? As a major update to IWA’s Waterways Directory is released, its author John Pomfret talks about its background and the complications of making a complete list of inland waterways and their navigation authorities
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WA has regular contact with the Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency but our Navigation Committee was concerned that, in IWA’s role of advocating the conservation, use, maintenance and development of the inland waterways of the British Isles, we should not forget navigations run by other authorities. So, in 2014, it set an objective to increase IWA contact with other inland navigation authorities and to assist branches in this regard. But who are these authorities? A list was required, broken down by IWA branch area, and I volunteered to do this. Little did I realise what I had taken on! Making a list of inland navigations and navigation authorities sounded a simple enough task. We all know what we mean by an inland waterway and a navigation authority – don’t we? Apparently not. First of all, what is an inland waterway? For canals specifically built for navigation it’s pretty obvious but that’s not quite the case for rivers. There is evidence that a number of rivers in their natural state
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were used occasionally in mediaeval times and earlier, when water levels allowed, to move heavy cargoes, for example stone for cathedral construction projects. However, such transport was often subject to long delays and many hazards and was not navigation as we know it today. I felt that such waterways should not be included unless later development led to regular navigation use.
Tidal question What about tidal inland waterways? Historically, while narrowboats and Leeds & Liverpool Canal boats spent little time on tidal waters, many types of inland craft (Tyne keels and wherries, Yorkshire keels and sloops, Broads wherries, Thames sailing barges, Severn Trows, Mersey Flats, smaller puffers and many barges on south-coast waterways) did operate regularly onto tidal inland waterways. Indeed, some major hubs for inland barge operations were on tidal waterways (Hull, for instance) and some clearly inland routes included a significant proportion of tidal waterways. For example, over
A popular inland cruising area. Most of the currently navigable Broads waterways are tidal.
40% of the inland route from London to Portsmouth via the Thames, Wey, Wey & Arun and Portsmouth & Arundel navigations was on tidal waters. Some tidal waterways are also crucial links in the connected waterways system used by recreational inland craft. So leaving these out would exclude a major part of our inland waterways heritage, as well as ignoring major freight routes and those used by recreational inland cruising vessels. But including them left me with the problems of how to determine the seaward limit of each route and which isolated tidal waterways to include. My approach was based on evidence of use by barges operating on internal (non-seagoing) traffics or similar recreational use but it did mean looking at each of the 200 or so tidal waterway entries individually.
Creating a database I started off listing existing navigable waterways but then I had to decide what to do about those currently under restoration – as the projects progressed I would have to keep adding new entries. So why not include all waterways – navigable, under restoration and derelict – and thus make it really comprehensive? It seemed an interesting thing to do that appealed to my waterway-anorak mind. I also added distances, which I thought might be useful to branches. This has given us a clearer idea of just how many miles of inland waterway there are in Great Britain – something we can use to press the Government for better funding. Once I had a list of inland waterways split into branch areas selected on the basis of criteria described in detail in the Explanatory Notes to the Directory, I just needed to add the navigation authority in each case – whatever that meant! Autumn 2021 20/07/2021 15:20
