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No prizes for
guessing that it’s a lock! This is what Hanbury Locks on the
Droitwich Canal looked like last year, with restoration work well
under way.
This has been one of our most important work-sites for the last
few years: many volunteers have tried their hand at bricklaying,
stonework, concreting, machinery operation and all the other jobs
involved in rescuing a historic flight of locks from
dereliction... |
...and this is what
it looked like when we’d finished it. The locks were
officially declared open in 2002.
They’ve been saved as an important historic relic: one of the
last canals to be built, right at the end of the canal-building
era, and ‘state of the art’ for 1860! Not only that, but they’ll
soon be an attractive part of the midlands waterways network and
busy with visiting boaters. And it wouldn’t have happened
without our volunteers. |
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This one’s not
quite so obvious. These two rather odd-looking lumps of
concrete were in fact the first stages in the construction of a
brand-new lifting bridge at Foxham on the Wilts & Berks Canal.
If you look more closely you’ll see that the top half of the
left-hand lump of concrete has had its front faced in brick. That’s
because that’s the only bit that will be visible above water
when the bridge is finished... |
...and here’s the
completed lift-bridge - with a Land Rover testing it. Before
the Canal closed, it was crossed by dozens of lift-bridges
carrying farm tracks and minor roads. They must have been a very
distinctive feature of the canal, and one day they will be again.
Unlike the original bridges, modern construction methods mean the
new ones are strong enough to carry modern-day farm traffic -
including Land Rovers! |
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It’s a very large
and muddy hole in the ground, right? Well, yes it is, but it’s
also what the canal basin on the Herefordshire &
Gloucestershire Canal at Over, near Gloucester, looked like when
the volunteers were part-way through building it.
The long brick wall is a wharf wall that visiting boaters will one
day tie their boats to, and it used up something like 10,000
bricks - every one of them laid by volunteer labour, including
many Canal Camp volunteers... |
...and here it is:
finished, full of water and awaiting its first boats. Eighteen
months of hard work by volunteers saw that large muddy hole turned
into a showpiece canal basin. And not only is it an attraction in
its own right, one day it will be part of a 34-mile restored
canal.
Every one of the canal restoration projects that are being
supported by Canal Camps this year has the potential to be a
success story like the three on this page - come and help us make
it happen! |
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