Waterways

We need more hands on deck and are inviting you to discover a host of ways to give some time canal-side in their local community, with a programme of welcome sessions announced this week. Volunteering near Leicester Built by hand 250 years ago as the freight arteries that fuelled the Industrial Revolution, canals don’t look…

An unauthorised floating encampment, linked to reports of antisocial behaviour and alleged illegal activity, has been removed from the River Lee Navigation near Bow Locks. Accessing the structure The operation costing us in the region of £40,000. Our teams, supported by private security personnel, Metropolitan Police officers and a dog handler, carried out the operation…

We’ve announced that Tim Hunter will be joining as the charity’s interim fundraising director in February 2026. Tim joins from the NSPCC, where he has been interim director of income generation since April 2025. Previously he was director of private sector partnerships and fundraising at the UN World Food Programme based in Rome. At WFP,…

Work is under way on a Historic England-funded project to restore a piece of 200-year-old water-saving canal engineering, after a year of navigation closures caused by drought and climate change. Each movement of boats through locks uses thousands of litres of water, which must be replenished from reservoirs, river flows, boreholes or other sources. Georgian engineers understood this problem, and, in 1815, some 20 years after the…

We have completed a major phase of its project to restore Toddbrook Reservoir, near Whaley Bridge, with the construction of a new dam overflow spillway structure. Final weir block is craned into place After Christmas, further work will continue to connect the new structure to the River Goyt, refill the reservoir and return the construction…

A historic humpback canal bridge near Preston has been hit by an astonishing eleventh vehicle strike in five years, leaving us to pick up the pieces. We’re calling on drivers to take more care and protect these iconic bridges. Unfortunately, the Lancaster Canal has seen the most bridge strikes across the whole of the Trust’s 2,000…

The National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port, home to the largest collection of historic boats, celebrates its golden anniversary in 2026 with a host of exciting events and new restoration projects. The museum started life in the 1970s as an amazing volunteer regeneration effort led by a group of canal enthusiasts determined to preserve the derelict…

We’ve started a three and a half-month dredging programme along the North Stratford Canal. This specialist project is part of the Trust’s ongoing work to keep the 200-year-old canal navigable for boaters. Silt will be removed from over ten miles of the canal from Kings Norton Junction to Lapworth Lock. This will improve navigation along…

Boats can return to the Shropshire Union Canal in Cheshire following a major £850k project to repair a breach caused earlier this year when an old culvert carrying a stream under the canal collapsed. Shropshire Union Canal culvert repair The repair to the canal, just north of Chester between Knolls Bridge and Backford Bridge, required…