CanalCuttings - Your FREE Online-world British Inland Waterways, Narrowboat, River Cruiser, Canal Boat Magazine, Info Source and Britain's & Narrowboat Holiday Guide.

---

Around 800 Pages of Information and Features About Canals, Navigable Rivers and Their Usage - We're not just a Narrowboat World Magazine. The website includes River and Inland Waterways information - UK Inland Waterways Press Releases and Articles Invited.

Volunteers Return To The Montgomery Canal At Crickheath - 26 December 2011 – 1 January 2012

Volunteers from the Waterway Recovery Group of the Inland Waterways Association are returning to the Montgomery Canal after Christmas to continue the restoration of the canal to Crickheath.

In the summer of 2011 about a hundred volunteers, aged between 20 and 70, came to Shropshire from all across the country and from France and Spain, paying to work hard all day and to sleep on the floor of Porthywaen Silver Band Hall. They made great progress with the restoration of a section of the canal south of Price's Bridge, Redwith, clearing and reshaping 70 metres of the bed of the canal.

Now 25 volunteers will be returning from Boxing Day to New Year's Day to to clear the length of canal south of Crickheath Bridge.

Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust (M.W.R.T.) - "Friends of the Montgomery Canal"

The Chairman of Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust Michael Limbrey said, “Volunteers of Waterway Recovery Group first worked on the Montgomery Canal over forty years ago. With the Shropshire Union Canal Society working on the adjoining section, volunteers are putting a great effort into extending the navigable section of the canal south from Redwith Bridge.

“The volunteers will be clearing the canal south of Crickheath. Tree clearance is a very important part of the restoration because it allows the engineering inspections which are a vital precursor to making funding applications. The work of Waterway Recovery Group last summer very clearly showed the damage which tree roots can do and the extra effort and expense involved to remove them deep underground. Clearing the trees will limit the damage which has already occurred and prevent it becoming worse. This work is ideal for the winter months when conditions make it difficult to use large machinery to profile the canal, to lay the waterproof liner or use lime mortar to rebuild wharf walls.

“The Montgomery Canal was built two hundred years ago by teams of navvies using little more than picks and shovels, and as a branch line at the edge of the national network, construction methods were just enough to create a canal that boats could use. We think that with peaty ground conditions, this section of canal was never very watertight, and that when the volunteers have finished the canal will be in a better condition than it ever was in the past.

“The restored Montgomery Canal will be an amenity for residents and an attraction for visitors, bringing jobs and business opportunities. When the volunteers have restored the length they are working on, there will be just three miles left to bring boats to the border.”