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  • Boats to use stretch of Monty for first time in 90 years

    Boats to use stretch of Monty for first time in 90 years

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    THE Canal & River Trust in Wales (Glandŵr Cymru) has started the second phase of dredging on the 200-year-old Montgomery Canal. Restoration of the canal has included decades of work by volunteers and partners. Now, more than four miles of the canal between Llanymynech and Maerdy is being restored thanks to Glandŵr Cymru’s successful Levelling…

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  • Traditional skills revive tramway wharf

    Traditional skills revive tramway wharf

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    IN A world stuffed with technology it’s great to see that traditional skills and methods are still being used to great effect. This is true at Grinshill Stone Quarry where masons are dressing large coping IN A world stuffed with technology it’s great to see that traditional skills and methods are still being used to…

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  • Vandals deface newly painted artwork

    Vandals deface newly painted artwork

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    Within hours of its completion a beautiful canalside mural – designed to promote well-being – was defaced. Sally Clifford finds out more. WHEN the canalside mural he’d painstakingly spent a week creating was defaced, Jaydon Rowbottom decided to write those who’d done it a letter. Unconventionally, he didn’t put pen to paper; his medium was…

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  • Boat licence fees to rise by 6% in April

    Boat licence fees to rise by 6% in April

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    THE Canal & River Trust has confirmed an increase of 6% in boat licence fees from April 1, 2024, for both private boat owners and boating businesses. The rise is based on the latest Bank of England forecasts that inflation will remain at around 4.5% until then. Surcharges for boats without a home mooring and…

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  • Little Star canal trip for Wrexham schoolchildren

    Little Star canal trip for Wrexham schoolchildren

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    A CLASS of Year 4 and 5 pupils from St Anne’s Catholic Primary School in Wrexham recently enjoyed a 45-minute boat trip. They cruised along the Llangollen Canal and crossed over the World Heritage Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on board Anglo Welsh’s trip boat Little Star. Teacher Rebecca Hughes said: “The children had a lovely time on…

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  • Canal crowdfunder launched for community space

    Canal crowdfunder launched for community space

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    THE Chesterfield Canal Trust has launched a crowdfunder appeal in association with the Aviva Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund to create new community spaces at Staveley, Derbyshire. Aviva is kick-starting the appeal with £500 and will give the trust £2 for every £1 it raises, up to a maximum of £15,000. This means that…

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  • CRT investing £50M in vital conservation work this winter

    CRT investing £50M in vital conservation work this winter

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    The Canal & River Trust is embarking on a programme of winter repairs along 2,000 miles of historic canals across England and Wales. Forty-seven different waterways will benefit, with 138 large-scale works to replace worn-out lock gates, inspect tunnels and aqueducts, repair centuries-old masonry and brickwork, and other important heritage and conservation tasks. Heritage and…

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  • Discovering canal history in Chichester

    Discovering canal history in Chichester

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    Nicola Lisle enjoys a visit to the Chichester Ship Canal Heritage Centre in the latest in her museum series. CHICHESTER’S canal basin today is a peaceful backwater, the perfect place to stroll or sit and unwind alongside boats, ducks and a variety of wildlife. For more than 80 years, though, this was a busy industrial…

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  • IWA welcomes HS2 cancellation

    IWA welcomes HS2 cancellation

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    THE Inland Waterways Association (IWA) has welcomed the cancellation of HS2 Phase 2 as announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Cancellation of HS2 Phases 2a, 2b and HS2 East will avoid major noise impacts on waterway users at numerous locations and remove the blight on several canal restoration projects. Phase 2a (Fradley to Crewe) was…

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  • Horseboating returns to the Chesterfield Canal

    Horseboating returns to the Chesterfield Canal

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    EVERY year since 2019, the Chesterfield Canal Trust has put on displays of horseboating in Worksop. Charlie, the horse, could be seen on many summer Sundays towing Dawn Rose along the canal from Shireoaks to Worksop and back. This always attracted crowds of people keen to see a spectacle which dates back 250 years to…

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  • Oxford Canal bridges get £650,000 lift

    Oxford Canal bridges get £650,000 lift

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    THE Canal & River Trust is carrying out a £650,000 upgrade programme on four of the Oxford Canal’s iconic wooden lift bridges. A familiar part of the Oxfordshire landscape for nearly 250 years, the bridges were built to allow local farmers and residents to cross the newly dug canal. However, with funding for the construction…

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  • Lord Mayor books a visit to barge

    Lord Mayor books a visit to barge

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    Word is spreading about the Marjorie R floating bookshop in Leeds, as Sally Clifford found out. MOORED in the trendy waterside setting of Leeds dock, Marjorie R remains oblivious to her global fame. Queues of visitors, some from abroad, recently flocked to see this 77-year-old former workhorse of the waterway after seeing TV and media…

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  • New green flags for North West waterways

    New green flags for North West waterways

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    MORE than two-thirds of the North West region’s canals have been given Green Flag Award 2023/24 status by Keep Britain Tidy. The designation of a further 33 miles of the Trent & Mersey Canal takes the regional total up to 268 miles of Canal & River Trust waterways in Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.…

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  • Characters of the Cut: RiverMouse – Laura Lee Tanner

    Characters of the Cut: RiverMouse – Laura Lee Tanner

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    Alice Griffin reports… IT WAS a bright November Sunday in 2021 when singer-songwriter Laura Lee Tanner would embark on her first step in the creation of the folk quartet, RiverMouse, that she now fronts. Strolling past The Fox & Hounds pub in Stony Stratford, close to where her narrowboat was moored on the Grand Union…

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