Waterways

We’re delighted to announce the appointment of Ranjit Sondhi CBE to its Board of volunteer Trustees. For an initial three-year term, our Council approved his appointment on 25 September 2024. Living in Birmingham, and with a passionate enthusiasm for the role that canals play within the community, Ranjit will bring his considerable experience to us…

Our 2023/24 Annual Report & Accounts highlights the impact of climate change on our canal network, the rising cost of maintenance, and the significance of future funding cuts. It was a year of record spend on charitable activity, but one that saw the continued effect of climate change taking its toll on the Trust’s ageing…

Long Eaton United Football Club have joined forces with us to tackle the problem of litter on the Erewash Canal, helping to protect wildlife and improve the canal for visitors. Long Eaton United Football Club Long Eaton United’s under 11s boys’ team, nicknamed ‘Team Black’, swapped their football boots for canoe paddles and litter pickers…

Plans to open up to the public one of the canal network’s most historic working yards have received a boost with a development grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Ellesmere Yard, photo by Ian Roberts An important base Ellesmere Yard on the Llangollen Canal was built in 1806. It is an important operational base…

Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy Mete Coban and Deirdre Costigan MP join Southall community members to plant out a lockside community garden and launch a new wetland in Glade Lane Canalside Park. The Southall Grand Union Canal Wellbeing Way has reached another milestone towards completion with the opening of a new wetland in Glade…

We’ve created a warm welcome this week at Dobson Locks in Apperley Bridge, hosting a series of free special blacksmith’s forge demonstrations to celebrate this year’s Heritage Open Days. Thanks to our volunteer and former blacksmith David Wadsworth, and fellow volunteer Phil ‘bellow boy’ Bristow, we were able to reignite history and bring to life…

First look at the spectacular Looping Canal Boat Artwork by Alex Chinneck, on the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal. The first artwork on water by Chinneck, the sculpture celebrates Sheffield’s historic waterways and industrial heritage. It takes the form of a full-size canal boat, whose body behaves in an extraordinary way, performing a six metre-high, gravity-defying,…

Hundreds of young anglers are coming to the West Midlands to take part in our National Celebration of Young People and Fishing. Held on 14 and 15 September on the Shropshire Union Canal in Staffordshire & Shropshire, the event is set to be the largest gathering of young anglers in decades. The Celebration is open…

We’ve completed a six-week programme of repairs to Sellars Swing Bridge, which carries Sellars Road over the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. With the repairs requiring a road closure, the bridge reopened on schedule on Friday, following our work. It is one of 18 swing bridges along the canal that are important for maintaining navigation, especially…

All aboard for the first ever Steampunk weekend festival to be staged at the Anderton Boat Lift in Northwich, on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 September. Visitors and fans of the Victorian industrial fantasy fiction and design can enjoy free entry to a fabulous weekend of Steampunk exhibits, stalls, games, music and live entertainment. Our…