A boost has been given to the restoration of the Montgomery Canal by a £160,000 development grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (H L F), which is a key step forward to securing a full grant of £3.7 million.
The bid is led by the Canal & River Trust (CRT) and supported by the 14 partner organisations of the Montgomery Canal Partnership.
Works are planned with a total cost of about £6 million with another £2m earmarked to come from a mixture of local authorities, the EU, CRT, sponsorship, canal societies and volunteer work-in-kind.
Volunteers relining a section of the Montgomery Canal
The full funding will restore another 700m of canal channel – linking up with a section of bed relining by volunteers of the Shropshire Union Canal Society – south of Redwith Bridge. It will effectively open to navigation an additional one and a half miles to a turning point at Crickheath Bridge; creating a seven mile restored northern length from the junction with the Llangollen Canal.
£2 million has to be spent in again extending the Aston nature reserve under agreements in nature conservation management agreement as a provision for future restoration of the length to the Welsh Border.
There will be some work on the un-navigable, but watered section in Wales including on dredging, towpaths, and boundaries. Structures on the Welsh side – such as Carreghofa Locks, bridges, sluices, and the Tanat Feeder – will be repaired.
The HLF funding announcement comes soon after £1 million has been invested to transform approximately 14 miles of the Montgomery Canal’s towpath between Newtown and Welshpool through a partnership between the Welsh Government, CRT, Powys County Council and Sustrans.
Thanks to Harry Arnold and Waterway Images for this report and images.
