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Locking to the future: Kennet & Avon Canal turns 200

British Waterways’ chief executive, Robin Evans said: “The Kennet & Avon Canal is a beautiful waterway, a real jewel in the crown of the nation’s working industrial heritage. We work with local authorities, the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust and many other groups and organisations to keep the waterway working for everyone to use and enjoy.

 

“I am particularly pleased that in 2010, the Kennet & Avon Canal’s bicentenary year, we have been able to secure the future of this much-loved and treasured waterway by agreeing with Government that British Waterways can leave state control and create a ‘national trust’ for the waterways.”

 

Originally built as a trade route plying the 87-miles linking Newbury to Bath, today the canal links Reading and the River Thames, to Bath and Bristol beyond.

 

Canal trade rapidly declined as rail and then road superseded freight by water. By 1951 end-to-end traffic was impossible as the canal fell into disrepair and neglect. However, during the 1960’s the canal was given a life-line as a dedicated group of volunteers, now known as the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust, campaigned, raised funds and carried out physical repairs to protect the line of the canal.

   

In the 1990’s the canal was saved through a massive restoration programme, including a £25 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The restoration was completed in 2002 and since then the Kennet & Avon Canal has enjoyed a renaissance. This winter over £1million will be spent carrying out maintenance works on the Kennet & Avon Canal, including the replacement of lock gates, lime mortar brick repairs and dredging.

 

Mike Rodd, general manager, Kennet & Avon Canal Trust said: “The canal owes its current success to the dedication of a huge number of volunteers  who over the years, have tirelessly campaigned to keep the canal open, and, in more recent years, helped maintain this wonderful waterway working together with British Waterways.”

 

Primarily a leisure amenity, the canal enjoys over 11 million visits per year, from boaters, walkers, cyclists, canoeists, anglers and holiday-makers. The waterway generates £43 million direct expenditure in the local economy and supports over 1,300 jobs in the leisure and tourism industry.

 

The canal is a haven for wildlife and home to a wealth of heritage. Sensitive restoration and management of the canal means that the waterway provides a linear habitat supporting a massive variety of wildlife including an increasing population of the protected water vole, famously depicted as ‘Ratty’ in Wind in the Willows, the magnificent otter and regent of the waterways, the kingfisher.

 

The waterway is home to seven scheduled monuments and 116 listed structures, including the engineering masterpiece, Caen Hill Lock Flight, and the picturesque Dundas and Avoncliff Aqueducts.

 

Claire Perry MP for Devizes said:

“It’s amazing to think that the Kennet & Avon Canal is today celebrating its 200^th anniversary. This wonderful waterway is a brilliant asset to the towns and countryside through which it passes. The canal is lots of things to many people; it’s a wildlife corridor, a leisure and business park and a working part of our industrial heritage that everyone can access and enjoy for free.

 

“The canal’s future, as part of a new national waterways charity, will surely mean that more local people can be involved in the decisions to care for and maintain this historic piece of our landscape and that we can all protect it for future generations.”

To discover the beauty of the Kennet & Avon Canal visit www.waterscape.com