Isolated Lancaster Canal to be dredged for trailboats

A canal which normally sees almost no boat traffic is to be dredged of over 1,500 tonnes of silt! The work is being carried out to prepare for the national three day Trailboat Festival to be held from Saturday 30 May until Monday 1 June on the Northern Reaches of the Lancaster Canal, to enable the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) festival to take place alongside Countryfest – a celebration of food and the countryside on the Westmorland Show site at Crooklands. The canal landing stage at Crookland has been extensively restored by volunteers including the relaying of the original cobble sets and ‘layering’ of an overgrown hedge in preparation for the event and a new landing stage made at the Countryfest canal entrance (Bridge 167).

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The IWA’s annual Trailboat Festival is held on isolated stretches of inland waterway, and aims to promote the restoration or development of local waterways and to promote an under used waterway. Trail boats are smaller than traditional canal boats, and are designed to be transported by road between different waterways – which makes it possible for them to explore land-locked waterways. (Above – previous Trailboat Festival at Moira)

Dredging is a vital part of keeping the waterways clear for boaters, but also has a positive impact on the flora and fauna. This is phase one of the work, with the second phase – the dredging of sections of the Lancaster Canal to take place later in the year. The dredging of the northern reaches – the unrestored northern stretch of the Lancaster Canal, will also have the added benefit of improving the water supply to the remainder of the canal. The dredging has been carefully planned to avoid what is believed to be a hospital barge used during the 1920 diphtheria epidemic and is now a submerged wreck at Field End Bridge. The Lancaster Canal Trust engaged divers who located the wreck and now the dredging has been planned to prevent it being disturbed.

The Trailboat Festival is being hosted by the Lancaster Canal Trust, which was set up to restore, and reopen to navigation, the length of the canal from Tewitfield, just north of Carnforth, to Kendal after the Lancaster Canal was cut in two by the construction of the M6 motorway.

Over 30 trail boats are expected to taken place at the festival which runs from 30 May – 1 June, all having to be delivered by trailer because the Northern Reaches of the Canal is land-locked. The highlight of the festival will be illuminated parade of boats that will take place on Sunday 31 May at 8.30pm from Millness to Wakefield’s wharf.

From CRT News release, images courtesy Harry Arnold and Waterway Images.

All materials and images © Canal Junction Ltd. Dalton House, 35 Chester St, Wrexham LL13 8AH. No unauthorised reproduction.

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