Restoration feature Our newsflash last time confirmed the £16m Cotswold Canals Phase 1b restoration Cotswold Canals get connected! Those who are currently receiving the online version of Navvies (rather than the limited number of print copies) will have seen the ‘Stop Press’ newsflash on the front cover of the last issue: ‘Cotswold Canals £9m Lottery win means boats to Stroud’, and the brief explanation inside the magazine that confirmation of a Lottery grant meant that a £16m funding package would reopen the canal from Saul Junction to Stonehouse, and give us a ten-mile addition to the waterways network. We promised you a detailed article this time. So here it is...
What’s got the go-ahead? The National Lottery has given final agreement to a grant which (added to other contributions from local authorities, Cotswold Canal Trust and others) means that the four-mile section of canal from Saul Junction to Stonehouse (known as Phase 1b) can be restored and reopened in around four years. We’ve got a full description of the route and what’s involved in reopening it on the following pages.
But wait a minute, you said ‘ten miles’! Yes: that’s because this four-mile section links up with another section almost six miles long that’s already been restored
Cotswold Canals: how do the phases work? Length: 36 miles Locks: originally 56 (at least one extra needed) Date closed: 1927-54 The Cotswold Canals is the canal restorers’ name for the route from Saul Junction on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal to Inglesham on the Thames, made up of the Stroudwater Navigation (opened in 1779 for eight miles via 12 locks from the River Severn to Stroud) and the Thames & Severn Canal (opened in 1789, continuing the route for a further 29 miles and 44 locks to the Thames at Inglesham). The canals were shut in stages between 1927 and 1954, and by the time the Cotswold Canals Trust’s forerunner was formed in the early 1970s they were in a poor condition and seen as a difficult restoration. To break it down into more manageable chunks, CCT more recently divided it into ‘phases’. Phase 1 would be the Saul Junction to Brimscombe length, seen as likely to be the first to be reopened. Phase 2, seen as likely to be the next focus for attention (although that by no means precludes working there earlier), was the eastern section from the Thames at Inglesham to the Cotswold Water Park. Phase 3 was the difficult central length with the collapsed Sapperton Tunnel, road blockages and many locks: probably the final length to open, but again, no reason for not working there if opportunities arose. It became clear that even Phase 1 was beyond Lottery grants available, so it was subdivided. Phase 1a (Stonehouse to Brimscombe) included more heritage and regeneration potential, and so (after some soul-searching) it was (correctly, as it turned out) chosen as the initial candidate for funding grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Regional Development Agency as it matched their agenda better even though it meant restoring an isolated length of canal with no connection to the national network. Phase 1b (Saul to Stonehouse) was then the key connecting length linking the Phase 1a section to the national network. It was felt (again, correctly, as it now turns out) that the Heritage Lottery Fund would look favourably on it now, as (even though there is relatively little heritage restoration involved, and rather more engineering construction work) it will help the already restored Phase 1a section to achieve its full potential. Phase 1b: Saul to Stonehouse Phase 1a: Stonehouse to Brimscombe
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Phase 3: Brimscombe North Wilts Canal to Cerney to Swindon
Phase 2: Inglesham to Cerney
