Waterways News and Features

Waterways News & Features about what's happening on the UK Canals and River Navigations.

Canal Junction has regular news updates on canal matters, progress reports on the many canal restoration and rebuilding schemes and special features about UK canals and inland waterways. Make sure you make time to dip into Tony Lewery's' Off the Mainline' musings for a refreshingly different, thoughtful and thought provoking look at canals, their heritage and future.
If you have canal news releases, event news or other canal information you'd like to share or ideas about features you'd like to see in Canal Junction, please email us. Topics include:
CanalsideArt Canals have always interested artists, now lots of money is being spent on canalside sculptures, but do they really enhance their canal environment?
Tony Lewery takes us Off the Main Line for journeys through waterways issues. Subscribe
Swop your boat for a few weeks or months with people wanting a canal holiday while you enjoy their home or holiday house.
How boaters can reduce the burden on world resources and make boating more enjoyable, safer, cost effective and rewarding.
Restoration Reports, plans to reopen the Cotswolds Canals, Bradford Canal, Wilts and Berks canal, Montgomery Canal ...
Living on a Canalboat. Many people dream of living on the canals. But what is it really like? Hard facts here!
Traditional engine sounds - Lister JP2 taking it easy (83k .wav file) Armstrong working hard (50k) - Bolinder slowing (100k)
NEWS & EVENTS ROUNDUP - news reports and images courtesy of Harry Arnold and Waterway Images (except *).
EVENTS 2010 (send details of events to services@canaljunction.com )
Kidderminster Canal Festival 19th to 21st August 2010. Kidderminster's first ever canal festival! As part of the town's ReWyre Regeneration Initiative the District Council, in partnership with Weavers Wharf shopping centre and British Waterways, are organising a canal festival to celebrate this important feature of the town. A range of attractions will be centred around the canal at Weavers Wharf and beyond to celebrate the town’s canal and help to bring it to life. More details.
The Folly Charity Folk n Boat n Beer Weekend, August 20th, 21st and 22nd at The Folly, Folly Lane, Napton in aid of JJ's Memorial Fund, a locally based charity dedicated to raising money to help injured paratroopers and to support the families of those killed in action. Full details of the event at www.follyfolk.co.uk.
Maesbury ’10 Canal Festival -4th & 5th September 2010 - Canal Central, Maesbury Marsh, Nr Oswestry SY10 8JG (alongside the Montgomery Canal) Enjoy a great day out for all the family including narrowboats, crafts, competitions, children’s entertainment, great food and drink, live music, steam railway, landrover exhibition & much more! Entry and activities free during the day. www.canalfestival.co.uk
An Inland Voyage: Life on the Coventry & Oxford Canals - Coventry Herbert Art Gallery & Museum from 26 June until 30 August. New FREE exhibition displaying a snapshot of local heritage through photography from years gone by from the remarkable photographic archive of Coventry factory worker, Robert Longden.
During the late 1940s and early 1950s he documented an intimate history of a working life now long gone. The photographs record the narrow boat people he encountered at Sutton Stop canal junction near Hawkesbury. These images catch forever the moment of transformation which saw the canals change from being industrial thoroughfares to locations for leisure. More information at www.theherbert.org .
NEWS July 2010
Chesterfield Canal Festival - *Chesterfield Canal Trust news release
The Chesterfield Canal Trust held their Festival at Worksop on Saturday and Sunday 17th and 18th July. Despite unhelpful weather, there was a healthy turnout to see a very wide range of attractions.
Besides a fun day out, the purpose of the Festival was to bring attention to the glorious Chesterfield Canal and the Trust’s campaign to restore the nine mile gap between Staveley and Kiveton Park. There was a reception on the Saturday morning for politicians and other decision makers at which the canal’s Development Manager, Dr. Geraint Coles, outlined Next Navigation – a thousand page document that gives every detail of the restoration plans.

Flood defence sell-off?


Denver Sluice on the River Ouse

A recent report in The Times suggests that the government is considering selling Britain’s flood defence network to the private sector in one of what could be the one of the biggest shake-ups of the industry in decades. Apparently the Treasury is exploring ways to drastically cut the annual flood defence bill of £713 million, one of which would mean selling off the Thames Barrier and flood defence structures on the rivers Ouse and Severn. Private companies would be able to acquire and operate these defences; passing the charges on to consumers, either directly or through a levy on council tax.  But some of these defences incorporate navigation structures and are operated by the Environment Agency. The Waterway Minister has twice recently stated that within this transfer of the management of British Waterways into a Third Sector trust the government is considering incorporating EA waterways; raising hopes that we might have something like a national navigation authority at last. Yet the sell-off any flood defence incorporating a navigation structure to a private company would again fragment this proposal.
BW closes half of Leeds Liverpool Canal - *BW news 13 July
With some of the worst drought conditions for 100 years British Waterways has today announced that it is taking the highly unusual step of partially closing a canal in the North West. The planned closure of almost half of Britain’s longest man-made waterway – the 127-mile long Leeds & Liverpool Canal – will take effect from Monday 2 August, and will close for boating for 60 miles from Wigan in Lancashire to Gargrave in North Yorkshire. The remainder of the canal will stay open for navigation, however there will be a restricted lock schedule to minimise impact on neighbouring waterways. Operations manager Vince Moran said 'We anticipate the restrictions continuing through the current drought but will reopen the canal as soon as sufficient water supplies become available.'
IWA continues to back Cotswold canals restoration (unlike BW!)
IWA has launched a national appeal to raise funds for the restoration and re-commissioning of Inglesham Lock, at the junction with the Thames & Severn Canal and the River Thames, just above Lechlade, and the eastern gateway to the Cotswold Canals project. The plan is to both restore the lock – which was gifted to the Cotswold Canals Trust by British Waterways - and to fund the purchase and restoration of a 415-yard stretch of the canal above the lock. It also creates new project on the Cotswolds Canals that IWA’s volunteer restoration arm Waterway Recovery Group can wholly own from start to finish and will also encourage more participation by locals and waterway supporters.’ IWA also wants to open a new front in the Cotswold Canals restoration campaign and encourage momentum and engagement with local residents, which will complement the current work in the Stroud valley. It also wants to force further movement on the full realization of the Cotswold Water Park where it links to the Wilts & Berks Canal restoration and the possibility of reconnecting Swindon with the national waterways network.
Braunston Historic Narrowboat rally breaks records
A record-breaking 92 historic narrowboats gathered at Braunston Marine for the recent Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally; the largest attendance of such ex. carrying craft at any rally since the end of the working days on the canals. Coming from all parts of the waterways to this eighth annual rally, 22 boats were moored in the marina’s old Oxford Arm and the remaining 70 on the Grand Union Canal outside; six abreast in some places. Some of the 7,000 or so visitors came from as far afield as Canada, the USA, South Africa and Australia especially for the rally. All profits, which exceeded £6,000, were donated as usual, to canal campaigning causes by Tim Coghlan, owner of Braunston Marina and the main sponsor. The main recipient were the Friends of Raymond which received £2,000 for the restoration work on their motor Nutfield. A donation of £500 was also made to Braunston church.
British Waterways reports record number of boats and waterway users
The latest British Waterways’ 2009/10 Annual Report & Accounts show continued growth in the total number of boats on English and Welsh waterways - up from 33,831 to 34,944. In Scotland boats licensed also rose from 3,354 to 3,722, mainly reflecting increased usage of the Caledonian and Crinan canals. The report says that a record number of people visited BW waterways and their towpaths is up by 26% to 13 million adults and that 91% of people now think that the waterways are an important part of the nation’s heritage. The report highlights the growing momentum for the creation of a ‘national trust’ to care for the country's historic canals, rivers and docks and says that the proposal has won widespread stakeholder support and interest from the UK government as an example of delivering Big Society principles.
Vandals close Birmingham & Fazeley Canal

Vandals tampering with paddles at Minworth Locks on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal on 2 July caused the pound between the second and third locks to overtop the banks and flood the adjacent main A.38 dual carriageway road into central Birmingham. Although the canal banks held, the resulting surge washed away the supporting embankment and caused the immediate closure of the canal between Curdworth Bottom Lock and Perry Barr Top Lock: adjacent main lock flights at Curdworth, Perry Barr, Saltley and Aston also had to be closed. BW engineers assessed the situation and rebuilding of the embankment began almost immediately, resulting in this main route into and out of the Birmingham canal network from the east being opened reopened again on 6 July. Refilling of this and surrounding canals took a little longer because of the lack of feed from the temporarily closed Chasewater Reservoir.
Plans to reopen Llangollen Canal links
A local group is lobbying to reopen the historic Plas Kynaston Canal – originally built in about 1830 – which ran from the present Trevor Basin of the Llangollen Canal, by the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, for just over half-a-mile to a works in the village of Cefn Mawr. The canal also served the Plas Kynaston Iron Foundry where William Hazeldine cast sections of Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The area – on the other side of the valley to the canal and the famous aqueduct, now a World Heritage Site – has been hard hit by closure of local industry; but because of this it is now clear for the restoration of the waterway. One of the keys to the project is to build a 60-berth marina on a disused industrial site by the Queens Hotel in Cefn Mawr. Further down the Llangollen Canal the Whitchurch Waterway Trust has announced a new proposal to extend the restored section of the Whitchurch Arm to a newly constructed mooring basin.
NEWS June 2010
Harry Arnold gets MBE for his services to waterways.
Harry Arnold, renowned waterway journalist and photographer, has been rewarded for over 50 years service to inland waterways with an MBE in the Queen's 2010 birthday honours list. Harry is the author of a number of books, including his great loves, the Montgomery Canal and Llangollen Canal. He has been passionately involved with a range of restoration projects, from the setting up of the Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port to the very successful Saturn Project which restored and now operates the Shroppie Fly Boat Saturn. He is probably best known publically for his ever increasing collection of waterways images, widely used in waterways publications. He runs Waterways Images and is the authoritative source of most of the reports & images  in this Canal Junction News Section. Congratulations Harry, well deserved!
Lottery Funds more traditional boat building trainees
In a partnership with National Historic Ships the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port has received a grant of £110,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s ‘Skills for the Future’ programme to help to expand its recently established Heritage Boatyard operation. The funding will enable the museum to employ more trainees, vastly increasing its ability to conserve its collection of historic canal boats. Trainees will develop skills in traditional boat building through this programme whilst helping to conserve waterway craft listed on the National Register of Historic Vessels, a number of which are based at the museum. In addition to working at Ellesmere Port the new trainees will be able to broaden their skills and extend their experience of historic vessels by gaining short-term experience at a range of other sites including, Windermere Steamboat Museum, Harker’s Yard Pioneer Skills Centre, Essex, Project Boleh, Portsmouth, and Brinklow Boat Services.
Dry Spring causes water supply worries again
The current lack of rainfall is causing some concern about water stocks and supplies, even in some generally wet areas such as the Lake District. BW introduced restricted passage and reduced operating hours (9am till 4:30pm) on most of the lock flights on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, from Monday 24 May until further notice, because it has had to rely on reservoirs to feed the canals earlier in the season than normal. On Thursday 27 May 2010 the River Severn was placed in drought regulation, which means that BW had to minimise lock movements to reduce water use. All boaters were asked to plan ahead and wherever possible to share locks at Gloucester and Sharpness. In South Wales, the Environment Agency advised BW that low flow levels are currently being recorded in the River Usk, which is the main source of water for the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal. Water usage and losses have had to be minimised as far as practicable and all boaters have been asked to cruise carefully to avoid pushing water over waste weirs and to operate locks carefully. Again no restrictions were imposed.
BW experiments with canal 'National Trust'
British Waterways (BW) and the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust (KACT) are setting up a Waterways Partnership Board as what is claimed to be an innovative approach to managing the Kennet & Avon Canal; as part of BW’s plans to establish a ‘national trust’ for their canal and river network. It follows discussions which also included representatives from IWA. Members of the partnership will be drawn from the highest level from the five local authorities and other key stakeholders who came together and led on the canal’s restoration. . The launch of the initiative will apparently give the people that use and waterway and the communities that live alongside it a much greater say in how the canal is managed. It is hoped that the pilot will provide BW with valuable information and experience on how to put waterways on a 'more sustainable footing' and ensure the lessons are incorporated into the consultation on the setting up of a new third sector body.
Moira Canal Festival pulls in crowds despite shortage of boats
It seems that boats are not necessarily a major ingredient of a successful waterway event, as the 2010 Moira Canal Festival proved by packing in the crowds to the Moira Furnace site, on the currently detached section of the Ashby Canal, over the weekend of 22nd and 23rd May. The hot weather helped but there was again much to see, do and buy on the land site at this tenth annual event; very efficiently organised by the Ashby Canal Trust. A big attraction was the Sealed Knot – represented by a division of Lord Say and Sele’s Regiment - re-enacting The Battle for the Ashby Woulds; an appropriately local English Civil War skirmish. But larger boats were few: one Sea Otter, and two Wilderness trailboats, the attractive steam launch, carrying the mini Karl’s Bavarian Brass band, which usually entertains and the local trip boat which operates from the Furnace site. The Wilderness club was due to the fact them supporting the IWA National Trailboat Festival in South Wales on the following Bank Holiday weekend. One of the difficult choices for boat owners among a number of events that clash, or are close, this year.
NEWS May 2010
Severn Trent pours cold water on Bratch Steaming Event
Following a ruling by plant owners Severn Trent the popular Wombourne Summer Steam Festival – centred around an open steaming weekend at the Bratch Pumping Station has had to be cancelled. The festival – located near The Bratch Locks on the Staffs & Worcester Canal – has been successfully mounted by the Friends of the Bratch group for over 10 years, and last year attracted more than 2,000 visitors to see the historic pumping engines steamed. Severn Trent has refused permission for this year’s event without new and extensive safety plans in place which the organisers cannot possibly comply with. They claim that so many people at the working water plant could cause contamination and also put visitors at risk. The Friends of the Bratch Group say that these issues have never been raised before and that last year a Severn Trent safety inspector came down and gave the event a glowing report. They say that solicitors would have to be employed to draw up the required safety plans and it would cost the volunteers hundreds of pounds of their own money. It is hoped that a compromise can be reached with Severn Trent but it will still be impossible to hold this year’s event. All monies raised from the events go to restoring and maintaining the Grade 2* steam pumping engines Victoria and Albert, which were installed in their elegant brick pump house in 1895.
OwnerShips sinks into Administration* Editor 4/5/2010


Ownerships managed boats at Braunston Show in February.

OwnerShips, the company which provides management services for 104 shared ownership waterways craft with over 1000 owners, has debts of £1.8 million and is to be wound up. Managing Director Allen Matthews, who set up the company 20 years ago, died recently and reports suggest examination of the accounts shows the company to be insolvent, and that monies taken from owners to be held on deposit were used for other purposes. The company recently built two expensive and controversial boats, a Dutch barge which had to be bought back from owners because it was too high and deep, and a luxurious motor yacht which resulted in the resignation of the then General Manager because of his concerns about the viability of the project. Yet OwnerShips recently held its 20th Boat Show at Braunston which resulted in the sale of 29 new shares, a record for the annual event. It is suggested that because existing owners own their boats, not OwnerShips, their investment will be safe, but annual monies paid for moorings, servicing and insurance to OwnerShips may not have reached suppliers.
OwnerShips Meeting 8th May: Share owners and investors involved in the failed OwnerShips boat share scheme packed the Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre on 8 May to hear the company’s financial director, Anthony Trueman explain the current situation within the organisation and to explore possible ways forward. Although each group’s ownership of their boat remains secure, Mr. Trueman explained that anyone who had invested in various optional projects run by the late managing director Allen Matthews had probably lost everything. These projects included Marina Investment, Free Management, Buy Back Insurance and the Fradley Boatyard Investment scheme. It should be explained however that the boatyard at Fradley Junction had already been purchased independently by a single investor – although under the OwnerShips banner – so the investment scheme promoted to buy it was somewhat dubious to say the least. Therefore the Fradley boatyard remains operational as a separate entity.
Mr. Trueman went on the explain that the main business of maintaining the fleet of 104 shared ownership narrowboats was financially sound, providing some efficiencies were made, and – although it couldn’t be run under the present name – a new company could be formed to operate it. The new company would be totally financially transparent with the owners as shareholders; with the allocation of shares reflecting the percentage of total loss from schemes promoted by Allen Matthews.
There were many questions from the floor and mandate forms were distributed to those present (and later sent to all other owners) asking for their opinions. We understand that if sufficient owners are in agreement then a formal proposal regarding the launching of a new company will be made. Meanwhile, we understand that other companies who provide facilities for managing shared ownership and timeshare narrowboats – such as BCBM of Nantwich, who took on a lot of Challenger Syndicateships’ craft, and the multi-based ABC Leisure – are offering their services to OwnerShips’ customers. We also hear that some marinas where OwnerShips’ boats are based have made management offers to syndicates located at their premises.
Chasewater Council looks for support as repair costs escalate
The total repair estimated cost for the urgent repairs required to the eastern dam of Chasewater Reservoir has escalated from £3.5 million to £4.479 million. This estimated expenditure has now been approved by owners Lichfield District Council which also says that it is in the middle of the tendering process to appoint a contractor and it expects the approved contractor to start on site in June. There have been attempts – including a Parliamentary question by Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant – to obtain Government funding to assist LDC with the cost, and leaked LDC internal papers have revealed secret discussions about the transfer of ownership to Staffordshire County Council which already owns the Chasewater Innovation Centre, the main on-site visitor centre. Although the reservoir is largely drained, some remaining water has had to be pumped out. Preparatory work has also been undertaken, including fish rescue, borehole drilling, removal of trees and shrubs removed and the relocation of rare habitats.
More waterways now under restoration
A recent Inland Waterways Association survey shows that 1,179 miles of once navigable waterway are now under active restoration, compared with 1,039 miles in 2002 and 770 miles in 1995. 555 miles of navigation have been fully restored and re-opened since IWA was founded in 1946. The survey is the result of a questionnaire compiled and distributed by IWA’s Restoration Committee to voluntary bodies concerned with waterway restoration and construction schemes in the United Kingdom; the vast majority being IWA Corporate Members. Membership of restoration bodies responding to the survey has grown from 17,400 in 1995 to 27,400 in 2002 and currently to 32,700 - excluding IWA and voluntary labour provided by IWA's Waterway Recovery Group. The survey questionnaire and analysis are available to download from the IWA website.
Volunteers working on BW mainline
Volunteers of the Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) are not normally seen working on a British Waterways’ main line canal, but over the weekend of 24-25 April a team removed vegetation, silt and rubbish from the derelict lock chamber at Church Lawton; one of a number of ‘paired’ parallel locks on the Cheshire Locks flight of the Trent & Mersey Canal. It is part of a campaign by IWA Stoke-on-Trent Branch and the Trent & Mersey Canal Society (T&MCS), in co-operation with BW, to improve the use of this heavily locked section between Middlewich and Stoke-on-Trent – nicknamed ‘Heartbreak Hill - for boaters and other waterway users. In the canal’s commercial heyday traffic was so heavy that extra parallel locks were built, some of which have now fallen out of use.
Fradley Interpretation Scheme
A new project to improve the interpretation of Fradley Junction and its nature reserve for the increasing numbers of visitors to this popular site has recently been completed. Entitled ‘It all ties up at Fradley’ the scheme mainly consists of new audio points with sensory aids, marked trails, resource boxes, interpretation panels and seating; linked with which there will be events and guided costume walks around the site. Perhaps the most interesting feature are the audio points, by the café, the junction itself and in the nature reserve around the pool, from which – at the press of a button – the voices of local experts tell you about Fradley Junction’s two canals, buildings, history and wildlife. 
NEWS April 2010
Chasewater works cause further canal restrictions.


Rushall locks, one of the affected flights

British Waterways has been forced to introduce further restrictions on the use of canals in the Birmingham and Black Country network because of the lack of water resources from Chasewater Reservoir whilst it is drained down in May for repairs by owners Lichfield District Council. Following further consultation with users, BW West Midlands Waterway is putting in place a regime of more controlled water management for the Wolverhampton Level of the BCN from 19 April which will mainly focus on the closing down and locking of major flights of locks overnight. The measure will reduce overnight lock usage and allow the level to recover from the previous day’s activities and pumping. It will also help to reduce the possibility of vandalism on lock flights which currently suffer from regular run offs over the summer period. Chasewater Reservoir is one of the main water supplies for 198-miles of canal which attracts thousands of boaters each year and supports a number of waterside businesses including boat repair yards, hire boat operators, trip boats, marinas, moorings and cruising clubs.
Heritage Boatyard opened at National Waterways Museum
A heritage boatyard – specifically created to repair and overhaul historic craft – at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port, was officially opened by BW Chairman Tony Hales on 19 March. Mr Hales has made a personal contribution to the £100,000 funding package required to finance the project.
A supervising boatbuilder has been employed along with four young boatyard assistants who will be assisted by volunteers working at the yard. The first job of the boatyard assistants was to construct a replica coal container for the museums Bridgewater Canal Box Boat’ - an 18th century example of containerisation – which explains why Tony Hales is smashing a bottle of champagne over what appears to be a wooden box to perform the official opening!
Anderton Boat Lift mural unveiled.
The Anderton Boat Lift Trust – set up to facilitate the restoration of this famous waterway feature – has been dissolved; as all its objects have been achieved and its residual activities discharged. To mark the occasion the trustees have erected a large mural (32ft long by 8ft high) at the Lift which was recently unveiled by Frances Done CBE, chairman of The Waterways Trust.
Painted by local waterway artist Diana Bernice Tackley and entitled “Anderton Boat Lift – The People Who Made It Happen”, the mural acknowledges the skill and efforts of the engineers who designed and constructed the Lift and the work of the volunteers who played such a vital role in its restoration and reopening.
Left - Unveiling the Anderton Boat Lift mural – (l to r) artist Diana Bernice Tackley, Frances Done CBE, chairman of The Waterways Trust and Richard Drake, chairman of the Anderton Boat Lift Trust.
NEWS March 2010
I.W.A launches new insurance scheme
IWA has launched an insurance scheme mainly aimed at boaters on canals and rivers which it believes is unique in this market. The association has teamed up with major insurance company Navigators & General and also River Canal Rescue; the latter company providing the additional security of an inclusive breakdown service. The added benefit to all waterway users is that every policy taken out and subsequently renewed through IWA helps to fund its charitable work in campaigning for and restoring canals and rivers.
NEC Boat & Caravan Show 2010
Being based in the Midlands one expects the annual Boat & Caravan Show at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre to be popular with inland waterways’ companies although, like London, the number exhibitors was down this year, with some regulars notably absent and spaces in the boating hall taken up with catering. We also heard from exhibitors that quite hefty discounts were being offered to fill space.
Nevertheless it was a good show with some excellent examples of both narrow and wide beam steel craft and glass-fibre cruisers to be seen.
NEWS February 2010
L.T.C. Rolt Centenary
The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) and other groups involved in historic transport, such as railways and motoring, are celebrating 2010 as the centenary of the birth of author L.T.C. Rolt. Tom Rolt’s first successful book Narrow Boat – the account of a waterway voyage aboard the Cressy in 1939 and published in 1944 – led to the founding of IWA in 1946 and the subsequent boom in pleasure boating on the main canal and river network. Although by the 1930s there was leisure use of the Broads and the Thames and a few pre-World War II boatyards on the rest of the waterways, it was Rolt’s writing – along with fellow IWA founder Robert Aickman – that directly inspired a number of enthusiasts go into the canal business; examples being Randal Wyatt of the Canal Cruising Co. at Stone, Holt Abbott of Canal Pleasurecraft at Stourport and Michael Streat of Blue Line at Braunston (now Braunston Marina).
Rolt went on to save the Talyllyn narrow gauge railway in Wales, the pioneer preservation scheme of the now massive steam railway heritage industry and to write many more popular books on railways, famous engineers, engineering and industrial archaeology; plus more books on waterways.
IWA members are re-enacting his original cruise aboard Cressy, which started at Banbury on the Oxford Canal, with a diversion to a celebratory Rolt Centenary Rally in Chester on 26 and 27 June where Rolt was born.
Chasewater draining causes event cancellations
The draining of Chasewater Reservoir has started and - apart from the effect on water sports on the lake itself – has led to the cancellation of events planned on the Black Country canal network by the Birmingham Canal Navigation Society (BCNS). After extensive discussions with the British Waterways Region Manager which - established that there will be no feed of water from the reservoir to the canal from May to October – BCNS has decided to call off the major canal festival planned to be held at Pelsall on the Wyrley & Essington Canal on 12 and 13 June. It has been rescheduled for 11 and 12 June 2011. Holding the event would have put further pressure on the limited water supply and would have restricted BW’s ability to keep these canals open for the remainder of the summer. The society is also reconsidering its programme for the reminder of 2010 in the light of this situation and has also cancelled its annual BCN Marathon Cruise and is holding discussions with BW regarding a revised version of its popular annual Explorer Cruise.
Thames Passenger Boat Service Proposals
London’s River Thames passenger boat services should be developed to carry an extra 12 million passengers per year says the think-tank Policy Exchange – a group of leading politicians and academics. In a recent report it says that the capital’s river is woefully underused for commuting.
Robert McIlveen, editor of the report, says that the river is like a huge motorway running through the heart of the city, but until now has been left empty, whilst Brisbane, Hamburg, Bankok and a dozen other cities have successful transport systems on water. There would have to be improvement to existing piers and new services would link directly with adjacent tube stations, providing an integrated high-speed passenger transport system as an alternative to existing road and railway routes. The problem is that the scheme would require an initial outlay of £30 million, money that is not currently available. However, with relatively little extra investment, passenger numbers on the existing Thames Clipper boats have doubled since 2007, which demonstrates the demand for an expanded service.
NEWS January 2010
New BW Welsh Advisory Group
During a fact-finding tour a new group formed to shape the future of waterways in Wales has found that business confidence is high on both the Llangollen and Montgomery canals. The Waterway Advisory Group comprises committed individuals from a wide range of professional backgrounds, each of whom can make a significant contribution to ensuring the waterways of Wales contributes fully to the national economy. They looked at existing tourist attractions, such as Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, recent developments such as, Llangollen Mooring Basin, voluntary restoration work on the Montgomery Canal and met with local entrepreneurs. Group chairman and BW Board vice-chairman John Bridgeman said – “7.5 million people visit the waterways of Wales annually, generating around £33m in visitor spend for just a tenth of that cost in maintenance. Add to this a World Heritage Site, three scheduled ancient monuments and 206 listed buildings, and the contribution our waterways make to the culture and economy of Wales is clear.”
Taylor’s Boatyard, Chester, developments
British Waterways is looking to partner the revival of the historic Taylor's Boatyard in Chester on the Shropshire Union Canal. The half-acre, with its side slips once employed over 200 people building and servicing the Shropshire Union Railway & Canal Company’s huge fleet of working boats. The Grade II listed site is probably the best surviving example of an original boatbuilding yard on the canal network and BW will ensure the site is sustainably restored to provide traditional boat repair facilities and that it will play a part in the sustainable development of Chester’s heritage. This will also include provision of moorings adjacent to the premises. BW is already working with a group of partners, including Chester City Council and waterway voluntary groups, to protect the yard as both an historic site and a commercially viable enterprise and is looking to obtain funding to invest in the sympathetic restoration of the buildings, subject to a suitable commercial partnership being established.
Ex Shropshire Union steam tug to operate from Cruise Liner Terminal - DAPS Media Release 14th January 2010
Britain's last steam tug tender, Daniel Adamson, has got the crucial go-ahead to operate from Liverpool Cruise Liner Terminal. Previously the province of 3,000 passenger mega liners like Queen Mary 2 and Crown Princess, the 106-year-old Daniel Adamson can carry just 100 passengers. This is a major turning point for the Daniel Adamson Preservation Society (DAPS) charity. DAPS recently passed the initial stage towards getting an £830,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and can now develop its grant application for the final second stage with the assistance of HLF's mentoring scheme. If successful, the HLF grant will cover much of the tug tender's restoration, including vital boiler refurbishment, plus educational outreach programmes. The HLF previously awarded two project planning grants in 2006 and 2008. It is hoped Daniel Adamson will undergo trials next year and return to her former stamping grounds of the River Mersey, Weaver Navigation and Manchester Ship Canal in 2012.
BW reduces licence evasion by almost 50% in two years.
The total number of unlicensed boats on the British Waterways’ network has fallen by a further 1.5% during 2009. Despite the credit crunch, 94.7% of the 31,400 boats on BW’s canals and rivers are now fully paid up licence holders. BW’s annual National Boat Check took place over two weeks during November. Adverse weather meant that some navigations, including the River Avon and River Ouse, were inaccessible to enforcement teams. However, in a year which saw 70 boats seized from their owners as the final outcome of enforcement action, evasion rates were reduced from 6.8% to 5.3% and is down from 10.4% in 2007. The biggest reductions in the number of unlicensed boats was in the West Midlands, Wales & Border Counties and the South East area – the latter seeing an above average 3.3% drop in evasion rates. BW enforcement teams have achieved a fall in the evasion rate of almost 50% in two years. Left - BW officer with bike and computer.
FEATURE
New book on Leeds and Liverpool paintwork
Brightwork is the subject of a recent book by Mike Clarke and Sam Yates. It was was the term used at boatyards in East Lancashire for the decorative paintwork used on Leeds & Liverpool canal craft. The painted decoration of working boats on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was one of the most colourful of Britain’s folk traditions. It was last used in the early 1960s, but despite being less than fifty years ago, no record of its origins and styles had been written until now. The two authors could not be more suitable — Mike Clarke has already written extensively about the canal’s history, while Sam Yates served his time as a boat builder at Hodson’s Boatyard at Whitebirk, near Blackburn, and undertook the decorative painting for several years before boat repair at the yard ceased in 1964. You can order a copy direct from Mike Clarke here online.


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