Just how many waterways do we have?

A popular inland cruising area. Most of the currently navigable Broads waterways are tidal.

As a major update to IWA’s Waterways Directory is released, its author John Pomfret talks about its background and the complications of making a complete list of inland waterways and their navigation authorities

IWA has regular contact with the Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency but our Navigation Committee was concerned that, in IWA’s role of advocating the conservation, use, maintenance and development of the inland waterways of the British Isles, we should not forget navigations run by other authorities. So, in 2014, it set an objective to increase IWA contact with other inland navigation authorities and to assist branches in this regard. But who are these authorities? A list was required, broken down by IWA branch area, and I volunteered to do this. Little did I realise what I had taken on!

Making a list of inland navigations and navigation authorities sounded a simple enough task. We all know what we mean by an inland waterway and a navigation authority – don’t we? Apparently not.

First of all, what is an inland waterway? For canals specifically built for navigation it’s pretty obvious but that’s not quite the case for rivers. There is evidence that a number of rivers in their natural state were used occasionally in mediaeval times and earlier, when water levels allowed, to move heavy cargoes, for example stone for cathedral construction projects. However, such transport was often subject to long delays and many hazards and was not navigation as we know it today. I felt that such waterways should not be included unless later development led to regular navigation use.

Tidal question

What about tidal inland waterways? Historically, while narrowboats and Leeds & Liverpool Canal boats spent little time on tidal waters, many types of inland craft (Tyne keels and wherries, Yorkshire keels and sloops, Broads wherries, Thames sailing barges, Severn Trows, Mersey Flats, smaller puffers and many barges on south-coast waterways) did operate regularly onto tidal inland waterways. Indeed, some major hubs for inland barge operations were on tidal waterways (Hull, for instance) and some clearly inland routes included a significant proportion of tidal waterways. For example, over 40% of the inland route from London to Portsmouth via the Thames, Wey, Wey & Arun and Portsmouth & Arundel navigations was on tidal waters.

Some tidal waterways are also crucial links in the connected waterways system used by recreational inland craft. So leaving these out would exclude a major part of our inland waterways heritage, as well as ignoring major freight routes and those used by recreational inland cruising vessels. But including them left me with the problems of how to determine the seaward limit of each route and which isolated tidal waterways to include. My approach was based on evidence of use by barges operating on internal (non-seagoing) traffics or similar recreational use but it did mean looking at each of the 200 or so tidal waterway entries individually.

Creating a database

I started off listing existing navigable waterways but then I had to decide what to do about those currently under restoration – as the projects progressed I would have to keep adding new entries. So why not include all waterways – navigable, under restoration and derelict – and thus make it really comprehensive? It seemed an interesting thing to do that appealed to my waterway-anorak mind.

I also added distances, which I thought might be useful to branches. This has given us a clearer idea of just how many miles of inland waterway there are in Great Britain – something we can use to press the Government for better funding.

Once I had a list of inland waterways split into branch areas selected on the basis of criteria described in detail in the Explanatory Notes to the Directory, I just needed to add the navigation authority in each case – whatever that meant!

Navigation authorities

Here the problem was the other way round. Tidal navigations were mostly fairly straightforward, as if there was an authority looking after a navigation it was generally a statutory harbour authority with powers derived from one of two Acts of Parliament. Some are also ‘competent’ harbour authorities, which is actually nothing to do with their competence or incompetence but relates to their duties regarding pilotage. It is interesting to note that both CRT and EA are harbour authorities and competent harbour authorities for certain inland waterways.

It was with non-tidal navigations that the main difficulties about navigation authorities arose. In some cases existence of an Act giving a body statutory powers and duties of some sort relating to navigation conservancy or regulation of navigation on the waterway in question meant I could definitely call a body a navigation authority. In other cases, presence of bye-laws controlling navigation gave me the name of the body making the bye-laws. But all local authorities have bye-law-making powers even if they are not navigation authorities, so bodies regulating navigation via byelaws were identified separately.

Some restoration groups also claimed to be navigation authorities based on ownership or some degree of control over the waterway. Clearly landowners can control entry to, and activity on, their land (including land covered by water) by licensing, so I counted bodies controlling access by boats on this basis as navigation authorities.

So in the end what I produced was not a simple list of navigation authorities, as originally envisaged, but a list of bodies with an interest in each waterway. I then categorised them in the Directory according to the type of interest (navigation authority, harbour authority, owner of navigation works, owner of the waterway etc). Finally, where I could find the answer, I indicated whether a right of navigation exists today.

The first edition of the Directory was released in 2016. This was my best attempt but I knew that among the IWA membership would be many who knew far more about their local waterways than I had managed to assemble from my own knowledge and from reference books, so an invitation was included to members to submit corrections and additions. Many members contributed (to whom, many thanks), allowing release of an improved version in 2017. A reduced version was also included on the back of Imray’s UK Waterways Map in 2016.

The tidal River Hull is historically a major centre for barges working on Yorkshire waterways. Over 40% of the route from Hull to Leeds is tidal. Loch Ness on the Caledonian Canal at Urquhart Castle. Identifying which of Scotland’s many lochs are actually used for commercial or recreational inland navigation (rather than solely by small boats for angling) proved to be a challenge.

2021 updates

An updated version of the Directory has just been released. In addition to very many minor corrections and additions, the significant updates in the May 2021 version include: • addition of a new tab in the spreadsheet comprising over 1,500 rows of data listing local authorities responsible for every section of waterway (navigable and unnavigable), broken down by IWA branch as in the main listing, which I hope will provide a valuable resource for IWA branches, restoration societies and others (this is the first step towards including details of waterways designated as conservation areas – see below); • in the light of IWA’s increased involvement in Scotland following the demise of SIWA and with the assistance of IWA’s Scottish representatives, improvement of the coverage of Scotland to the same standard as for inland waterways in

England and Wales; • improved coverage of former routes of river navigations, particularly the

River Don and River Lee (the rivers

Aire, Calder and Mersey were already covered); • inclusion of the more significant branches of the Grand Union Canal in the London area; • expansion of the Explanatory Notes to clarify criteria for inclusion of waterways, explain the local authorities worksheet and address various issues raised by members.

Although there has been no change in the criteria for inclusion of waterways or interested bodies since the beginning of the Directory, the latest update has resulted in an increase in the total mileage figures, with just over 7,000 miles of inland waterway ever brought into use now identified (the previous version identified 6,500 miles) and over 5,000 miles of currently navigable inland waterways (previously I had identified about 4,700 miles).

Using the Directory

The Directory is available as an Excel spreadsheet and a PDF version to IWA members and others upon request and provision of an email address. This allows updates to be provided when available, in an attempt to ensure that anyone using the Directory has the latest version. If you are interested, please request the Directory via waterways. org.uk/directory. I hope IWA branches in particular find it a useful resource regarding waterway bodies and local authorities in areas where they wish to take action to respond to threats to navigation, access, future restoration or our inland waterway heritage.

Whatever use you wish to make of the Directory, please do read the Explanatory Notes first; these set out the rationale for inclusion and categorisation of waterways and definitions of terms used in much more detail than this article can. And if you find any errors or omissions, please continue to let me know (email john.pomfret@waterways. org.uk). I have had masses of useful feedback from members who know the waterways in their own areas intimately. I don’t expect to add many new waterways now but waterway bodies and local authorities are constantly being reorganised (more than I realised!) and I will always be playing catch-up to ensure it’s up-to-date.

The intention is also to add details of local authority conservation areas, to assist the IWA campaign to increase coverage of such designations to protect waterways heritage, and I propose that the next update should take place once the conservation areas have been included in the Directory, probably in about a year from now.