waterways in progress News of four waterway restoration projects which are all benefiting from IWA funding grants aimed at providing benefits right from the start canal route. The first length and first bridge at Snarestone has been opened (although not without problems in the form of a recent burst) but just ...was something that you might just remember getting to the first major destination at Measham Mike Palmer going into some detail about as part will take time and money. But thanks to £10,000 of his Chairman’s page something approaching from IWA, a walking trail is being created along the two years ago. Basically the waterway restoration schemes we work on have been getting increasingly route in advance of reopening the canal: it will enable visiting boaters to walk to Measham, bring likely to take many years to complete. That’s not because we’re getting slower at restoring canals, it’s trade to the town - and ultimately form the towpath of the restored canal. because we’re getting onto the really difficult ones, Rewatering Renshaw Our Chestefield many of which have been shut for 100 years or so, and have been much more badly knocked about than Canal feature on page 10 explains in detail, but basically part way along the remaining eight-mile the the ones that have been reopened in the past. Not only that, but they’ll cost a lot more to restore. unnavigable length of the canal from Kiveton to Staveley is Renishaw, where some years ago a This means that many canal societies can’t just go to (say) the National Lottery Heritage Fund section was partly restored as part of a housing development. But it wasn’t finished, it wouldn’t and ask for a grant to complete the canal (because NLHF doesn’t have the resources to fund a typical hold water, and it is of little benefit for now. However thanks to £50,000 from IWA Chesterfield restoration right through to completion). And they’re going to struggle to get funding for it a step Canal Trust will be able to complete this length, waterproof it, provide a water supply, surface the at a time in more realistic sized grants, when all they can promise in terms of benefits is that in 25 towpath, and make it an attractive feature for local people to enjoy. And in the longer term it will years there will (hopefully) be a navigable canal. form part of the restored canal. This could stop restoration in its tracks. Coed Gwilym Park Slipway The Swansea So the Inland Waterways Association put Canal Society’s scheme is the type of difficult canal together a report called Waterways in Progress. This restoration we described in the introduction - only used a set of case studies to show how initial relaabout six miles are felt to be restorable at all, and a tively small-scale affordable projects on canals under restoration could provide benefits for local communi- lengthy new bypass channel will be needed if it’s to ties right from the start - while still not losing sight of be connected to the Tennant Canal as part of planned Swansea Bay Waterway. But a section the long-term goal of reopening the entire canal. below Trebanos Locks has been dredged, and a The examples included sections of canal restored as regeneration schemes, to create local community slipway funded by an £18,000 IWA grant will enable this length (which has the potential to be assets, to preserve natural or built heritage, all of extended to two and a half miles) to be used by which had attracted funding for their immediate trailboats and a tripboat. benefits, but at the same time had brought the Shrivenham Canal Park The Wilts & Berks rather distant prospect of full reopening a little closer. Canal Trust also has a difficult job on its hands, And then IWA put its money where its thanks to serious blockages from urban developmouth is, offering a total of £100,000 to this type of project. And it has announced the four success- ment obliterating its extremities: where it meets the Kennet & Avon Canal, the Cotswold Canals and ful bids for shares of this cash... the Thames - not to mention Swindon, where the Ashby Canal trail The Ashby Canal Assoarms of the canal meet (but see also page 25). ciation’s aim is to reopen the northern reaches of However in between there are many miles of the canal from Snarestone to Moira. However the derelict but unobstructed canal running through mining subsidence which led to the closure also means that restoration will be tricky - and in some open countryside. At Shrivenham a short length is being restored and rewatered and a canalside park places a whole new route based on an abandoned developed, supported by £13,960 from IWA. railway trackbed will be used instead of the old
IWA’s Waterways in Progress idea...
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