Why are we restoring Canals?
Back in the 18th century, Britain's roads were poor,
so freight was carried by river barges. As the industrial revolution
progressed, canals were built to serve places that weren't on a river.
Eventually a waterways system covered much of the country. But they were
hardly finished when a newer, faster rival appeared: railways threatened
to take away all the canals' traffic.
The canal companies did their best not to lose their
trade, but that meant cutting their prices to compete, and that meant
cutting their own costs, and that usually meant no money left to
modernise their canals. So as the railways got better, the canals were
left behind - until by the 1940s most of the trade had gone, hundreds of
miles of canal had fallen into ruin, and the future for the rest looked
bleak.
Fortunately people began to realise the value of the
canals for leisure - boating, fishing and walking for example - and for
their historic interest as a transport system that had hardly changed in
a hundred years. Soon, the closures came to an end as the canals found
themselves a new purpose.
But this was too late for the canals that had already
closed down. Their locks and bridges were collapsing, their channels had
run dry and they were threatened with obliteration by new housing and
road-building. So all over the country, canal societies were formed to
stop the decay and bring the old canals back into use.
Since 1970, Waterway Recovery Group has been a
co-ordinating force, helping local canal restoration schemes. We provide
equipment, expertise, publicity and labour. But we need your help!
Come along and help us restore Britain's canals - come on a Canal Camp,
or a weekend working party.
Thanks to the hard work of the volunteers, many
canals have been reopened, while others are well on the way. Many more
have not yet reached that stage - it is up to us, the volunteers, to
demonstrate what can be done. We are not only doing useful work - and
there is plenty left for us to do - we are also helping to convince
those with the money (like the local authorities, and the National
Lottery funds) that canals are worth restoring.
Now you know why we are doing it - come on a Canal
Camp and help us restore Britain's abandoned waterways!