progress Wilts & Berks

Next we head down to Wiltshire where the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust have more news of useful developments, this time in the Pewsham area

A popular stretch of restored canal between Chippenham and Lacock could be extended thanks to a new deal which has just been signed.

The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust has already rebuilt more than a kilometre of the former waterway from Pewsham Locks to Double Bridge. Now the charity has signed a lease with Wiltshire Council for an additional 500 metre stretch from Double Bridge towards Reybridge.

WBCT Calne Branch Chair Dave Maloney explained: “Walkers, runners and cyclists enjoy this beautiful corridor through the local countryside, and we run tripboats through the summer for local families and community groups. However, the rewatered section currently ends at Double Bridge and the towpath becomes more uneven after this point. This new lease, which will be automatically renewed every seven years at a peppercorn rent, gives us the confidence to start investing in plans to restore and rewater this length too.”

Expert advice and surveys will be commissioned to improve the habitat and protect the wildlife, beginning in the Spring. Assuming no problems are discovered, the channel will be cleared and the towpath raised. WBCT would then remove the bund at Double Bridge and allow water to flow into the new section.

The Pewsham section includes a flight of three locks which are steadily being repaired, as well as a wharf. There are also plans to rebuild a historic dry dock and carpenter’s workshop. The Trust aims to extend the Pewsham stretch towards Lacock and then connect with the original line south of the village, where the Trust has already purchased some of the land. This would join the proposed new ‘Melksham Link’, a route which will make use of the currently unnavigable River Avon to bypass the missing length of the canal through the town centre and to reinstate the historic connection to the Kennet & Avon Canal via a new cut from the Avon.

The ultimate ambition is to restore the entire waterway from the Kennet & Avon Canal to the Thames & Severn Canal near Cricklade and the River Thames near Abingdon, connecting Chippenham, Calne, Royal Wootton Bassett and Swindon.

Visit www.wbct.org.uk or see our restoration feature in Navvies 315 for more about the Wilts & Berks Canal restoration