Cotswold Canals

Cotswold Canals

The Cotswold Canals comprise the 29-mile (46km) Thames & Severn Canal and the 7-mile (13km) Stroudwater Navigation. When restored, the canals will form a continuous waterway from Saul Junction on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal to the Thames at Lechlade, including the 2¼-mile (4km) Sapperton Tunnel and 56 locks. A spirited campaign by Cotswold Canals Trust, supported by IWA and WRG, over thirty years gained the substantial public support of British Waterways just over five years ago, and led to the formation of the Cotswold Canals Partnership. The Trust now enjoys the support of over 5,000 members.

The Stroudwater Navigation now starts at Saul Junction on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, but originally came directly off the River Severn, 1 mile away. It was planned in the 1720s, opened in 1779 and was highly profitable in its heyday. However, competition from the railways started in the 1840s and the waterway finally closed in 1954, the last boat having delivered coal to Stroud gas works in 1941.

The Thames & Severn Canal was built to connect the Stroudwater Navigation to the Thames opened in 1789, but constant leakage problems and the advent of railway competition damaged its profitability. Around 1900, the canal was bought and improved by Gloucestershire County Council in an effort to stimulate business. Declining trade led to complete abandonment of the canal in 1933. Since then its line has been broken up and is now owned by over 70 different landowners.

Cotswold Canals Nov 2005

The Cotswold Canals Trust is restoring the Stroudwater Navigation and Thames & Severn Canal for the benefit of the public. This canal runs through Gloucestershire and part of Wiltshire traversing the glorious Cotswold Hills. The Trust has an active volunteer force working on several restoration projects. Sections of the canal are now in water and the Trust runs a trip boat on some of them. http://www.cotswoldcanals.com/

The Stage 2 bid for Heritage Lottery Funding to cover restoration of six miles of the Stroudwater Navigation and Thames & Severn Canal from Stonehouse to Brimscombe Port suffered a temporary setback when final studies suggested that costs could increase by as much as £10 million. The bid should have been submitted by the end of August but the Heritage Lottery Fund agreed a two-month extension whilst costs and funding were reviewed.

The review showed that since the Stage 1 application to the Fund was made, construction costs in general had risen far faster than the retail price index. This factor alone added £1.25 million to the project cost. In addition, dealing with and managing predicted flood flows in the main river section of the restoration is now expected to add a further £1 million. The review did, however, identify some areas where costings had been unduly pessimistic.

The net result is that there is likely to be an increase in costs of restoring the canals, but not of the magnitude suggested by the final studies. The plan is to fund this increase partly by asking British Waterways, the South West Regional Development and Heritage Lottery Fund to make additional contributions and partly from a combination of Section 106 payments from adjacent land development and by fundraising.

British Waterways, as lead partner, submitted the Stage 2 applications to both the Heritage Lottery Fund and the South West Regional Development Agency on 17th October. The Cotswold Canals Partnership members expect to hear whether the bid has been successful by the end of January 2006.

A ‘Project Atlas’ has been produced that summarises the restoration project. This will shortly be available from www.britishwaterways.co.uk/cotswolds.

Cotswold Canals Trust is reviewing where it should focus restoration work at the western end of the Stroudwater Navigation. The current assumption is that British Waterways will carry out the restoration of the canals from Stonehouse to Brimscombe Port with minimal volunteer input in so far as physical restoration is concerned.

However, the section of the Stroudwater Navigation from Stonehouse to Saul Junction is vital to connect the isolated section that is the subject of the Lottery bid to the rest of the inland waterways system via the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal and river Severn. A priority is to reach agreement with relatively few private landowners long the line of canal. This would enable a number of projects to be considered including the
rebuilding of Walk Bridge (the first obstruction of navigation after Saul Junction) and the completion of work in the vicinity of Whitminster Lock, for which the Trust has substantial funding in hand.

Information November 2005 courtesy of the Inland Waterways Association.

Cotswold Canals Feb 2006

On 25th January, the Heritage Lottery Fund announced that it had offered a grant of £11.9 million towards the restoration of the Cotswold Canals. The offer of a matching grant of £6 million was also announced by the South West of England Regional Development Agency on the same day. Stroud District Council has committed £2.25 million to the restoration scheme, whilst Gloucestershire County Council is to transfer Capel Mill, Wallbridge and Ship Inn, Stonehouse, and other County Council land holdings, worth a total of £1 million to British Waterways as part of the project. The Company of Proprietors of the Stroudwater Navigation signed a long lease on all of its land holdings to British Waterways in 2005. Stage One approval for the Heritage Lottery Fund grant was given in July 2004.

Detailed works and feasibility studies are now being undertaken by the Cotswold Canals Partnership to ensure the project can go ahead on time, within budget and proposed funding structures. Subject to these being successfully completed, physical work on the canals would be expected to start in the late summer of 2006 on the Stroudwater Navigation, with completion by the end of 2008. A lot more work to deliver the remaining funding through fundraising by The Waterways Trust, Cotswold Canals Trust, private sector investments and other sources connected with the project has already started.

The applications for the grants were submitted by British Waterways on behalf of the Cotswold Canals Partnership. The project will conserve 30 historic structures, including bridges and locks, and help to protect rare species including bats, water vole and crayfish. Reports compiled for the grant submissions indicate that the 6-mile (9.5 kilometre) section of the Cotswold Canals to be restored, between Stonehouse and Brimscombe Port, will attract about 215,000 extra visitors and create 600 jobs.

Information February 2006 courtesy of the Inland Waterways Association.