S&N canal history and restoration So what’s actually left of the canals, after half a century of groups not quite managing to restore them? We’ll start with the bad news: two aqueducts have been demolished, several locks on the Norbury flight have gone, long lengths of canal are infilled, there are (as mentioned earlier) three major road blockages plus numerous less serious ones, and some development on the line near the Shrewsbury terminus. But on the plus side most of the locks survive - apparently in fair condition - a couple of aqueducts still stand including the early cast iron one at Longdon, and much of the route is free of obstructions. In particular the Norbury to Newport length has few serious problems: most of the bridges still stand, and most of the locks look restorable. Various projects further west are in hand (including restoration of the junction area and historic transhipment warehouse at Wappenshall as a heritage and community centre; and restoration of the length alongside the historic Flax Mill near the Shrewsbury terminus) using external funding including grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund. But it’s the Norbury to Newport length that’s where the volunteer effort will be concentrated. Work has started at three sites: there has been initial vegetation clearance work on some of Norbury Locks and around Forton Aqueduct, and at a London WRG weekend dig in January 2014 work started digging out the infilled chamber of Meretown Lock. This is the site for this summer’s camp, so we’ll explain a bit about what’s happening. Just east of Meretown Lock the canal is crossed at close to water level by the A41 Newport bypass, the only major obstruction to opening the canal from the Shroppie down to Newport. If a way of getting the canal under the road can be found, Newport would make an excellent initial target for reopening, and an
important first step towards restoring the whole route. Raising the road isn’t really an option, so the alternatives involve diverting the canal to cross where the road is at a higher level; lowering the length of canal where it passes under the road to give more headroom; or a combination of the two. The exact details are still being worked out by SNCT, but basically it’s going to be the second option - which means that either Meretown Lock will be restored, and a new lock inserted between there and the A41; or Meretown Lock will be reduced in height (possibly down to zero) and the length of canal from there to the A41 deepened. Either of these will involve completely clearing out the lock chamber and repairing it - whether it ends up as a working lock or a gateless chamber like some of the old ‘stop locks’ you sometimes see at canal junctions. And that will be the work for this summer’s camp - along, quite possibly, with some digging out of the channel from there to the road. So if you fancy a week on a new site on an up-and-coming project (albeit one that’s been around for 50 years on and off!) with some dumper and excavator operating (and a chance for new volunteers to be trained on machines), plus brickwork repairs and perhaps some scrub clearance too, sign up for Canal Camp 2014-19 on 16-23 August. Martin Ludgate
page 17