FRIENDS of the Grand Western Canal Trust are promoting plans to develop a wildlife and heritage corridor along the Somerset section which is mostly not in water and often overlooked.
The canal once linked Tiverton with Taunton as a flourishing trading route. And following a meeting last autumn, it became clear from the enthusiastic feedback that what was needed was a greater understanding of the heritage, historic structures and the wildlife.
Long-standing member and trustee, Chris Whitcombe, said: “This is a long stretch of canal from French Weir in Taunton to Lowdwells on the Devon border so there is a lot of planning and organising to do to define the remains of the route and links to public footpaths, most of which are in the open countryside. We are looking to locate suitable key sites for installing interpretation boards adjacent to those existing footpaths.
“We have a good-size membership, however, we find ourselves in a situation where we are down to only four volunteers who actively meet as a working group so we really do need more to join us in order to achieve present and future ideas, including the Park and Glide project. Failure to increase the help needed could result in the loss of several years of planning and work.”
The group welcomes anyone who could come up with ideas, help with areas of social media, publicity and project management or who has any skills to contribute to help this group to continue.
If you can help, get in touch with Chris by email at [email protected] for more details.
