Canal Boat — January 2018

canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat January 2018 13

NEWS

TOWPATH

TELEGRAPH

OLYMPIC BOOKINGS OPEN

Boaters wishing to cruise into the Queen

Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London can

now book online. Passages through the

newly restored Carpenters Road, as well

as City Mill Lock or Three Mills Lock, will

require seven days’ notice. Passage is

available 9am to 5pm every day. See

licensing.canalrivertrust.org.uk.

NOTTINGHAM FACELIFT

Following a design competition among

students at Nottingham University’s

department of architecture and built

environment, a neglected strip of land next

to the Nottingham Canal in the city centre

canal is set to get a facelift. The plans,

unveiled by the Canal & River Trust, will

see a strip of land by Wilford Street

transformed into a community garden with

a canal-side amphitheatre, seating areas,

bike storage and the potential for a café

boat to be moored nearby.

WHILTON MARINA UPGRADE

Whilton Marina on the Grand Union Canal

has begun work on a new narrowboat

maintenance and repair workshop. It will

be capable of holding three full-length

boats simultaneously for maintenance

work, and fully equipped for work including

hull replating, stern tube renewal, wiring,

painting and engine installations. Work is

expected to be complete in spring 2018.

MONTY VOLUNTEERS WANTED

The Canal & River Trust is appealing for

more volunteers to join its teams on the

Montgomery and Llangollen canals. A

group already meets every Friday to work

on tasks including hedge-laying, vegetation

clearance, towpath maintenance and lock

gate painting but would like to recruit more

volunteers. Contact jason.watts@

canalrivertrust.org.uk.

AYLEBURY TOWPATH WORK

Work is under way to improve the Grand

Union Aylesbury Arm towpath, thanks to

£936,000 from Buckinghamshire County

Council. Work has begin in Aylesbury and

west of the Arla dairy near Aston Clinton.

A length of the Uttoxeter Canal is pictured emerging
from the undergrowth after more than a century and
a half of dereliction, thanks to the efforts of over 80
volunteers during Waterway Recovery Group’s annual
‘Bonfire Bash’ reunion and major working party.
The volunteers targeted a length of canal near
Alton, Staffordshire, which hasn’t seen a boat since
the 1840s when the Uttoxeter (an extension of the
Caldon Canal) was closed and parts of its route used
for a railway line. During the weekend, the first clear

signs were uncovered of Charlesworths Lock, whose

exact position had not been known by Caldon &

Uttoxeter Canals Trust, while the next lock,

Carringtons Lock, was cleared of vegetation and

shown to be in better condition than had been thought.

Looking back on a highly successful weekend, CUCT’s

Steve Wood said “I never cease to be astonished by

what WRGies do, and all with smiles and jokes on the

way.” In the medium term, the Trust hopes to establish

a navigable length suitable for trip-boat operation in

this area, as a step toward its long-term goal of

reopening the route throughout.

UTTOXETER CANAL

POCKLINGTON CANAL

Uncovering Uttoxeter

An amphibious dredger is

pictured taking silt and weeds

out of the Pocklington Canal in

one of two current Canal & River

Trust dredging projects on

unnavigable canals which are

more concerned with nature

conservation than boating – but

will ultimately support reopening

of those canals to navigation.

Two sections of the

Pocklington totalling almost a

mile are benefiting from the first

dredging for over 100 years, in a

£152,000 project funded

through the Gem in the

Landscape scheme, funded by

the Heritage Lottery Fund. One

length, between Melbourne and

Bielby, complements the

Pocklington Canal Amenity

Society’s work (funded by its

Bicentenary Appeal) to repair

the locks on this length, allowing

the canal to reopen to Bielby.

The second section, seen here,

is on the yet to be restored

length above Bielby, and

primarily benefits the rare

aquatic plants and other wildlife

in the channel. See our

November restoration feature for

more on the Pocklington.

Meanwhile an unnavigable

length of the Grantham Canal

between Redmile and Harby is

also being dredged. Part of the

£350,000 People’s Postcode

Lottery funded Making Special

Places for Nature project which

includes vegetation clearance,

coppicing and ‘green’ bank

protection on various canals and

reservoirs, this will also benefit

navigation in the long term,

when restoration extends below

the current worksite at

Woolsthorpe Locks.

Digging deep on the Pocklington

WRG’s volunteers clear the Uttoxeter Canal near Alton