canal that’s just got the go-ahead

Restoration feature

Our newsflash last time confirmed the £16m Cotswold Canals Phase 1b restoration

Cotswold Canals get connected!

Those who are currently receiving the online version of Navvies (rather than the limited number of print copies) will have seen the ‘Stop Press’ newsflash on the front cover of the last issue: ‘Cotswold Canals £9m Lottery win means boats to Stroud’, and the brief explanation inside the magazine that confirmation of a Lottery grant meant that a £16m funding package would reopen the canal from Saul Junction to Stonehouse, and give us a ten-mile addition to the waterways network. We promised you a detailed article this time. So here it is... What’s got the go-ahead? The Na-

tional Lottery has given final agreement to a grant which (added to other contributions from local authorities, Cotswold Canal Trust and others) means that the four-mile section of canal from Saul Junction to Stonehouse (known as Phase 1b) can be restored and reopened in around four years. We’ve got a full description of the route and what’s involved in reopening it on the following pages. But wait a minute, you said ‘ten

miles’! Yes: that’s because this four-mile section links up with another section almost six miles long that’s already been restored

Cotswold Canals: how do the phases work?

Length: 36 miles Locks: originally 56 (at least one extra needed) Date closed: 1927-54 The Cotswold Canals is the canal restorers’ name for the route from Saul Junction on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal to Inglesham on the Thames, made up of the Stroudwater Navigation (opened in 1779 for eight miles via 12 locks from the River Severn to Stroud) and the Thames & Severn Canal (opened in 1789, continuing the route for a further 29 miles and 44 locks to the Thames at Inglesham). The canals were shut in stages between 1927 and 1954, and by the time the Cotswold Canals Trust’s forerunner was formed in the early 1970s they were in a poor condition and seen as a difficult restoration. To break it down into more manageable chunks, CCT more recently divided it into ‘phases’. Phase 1 would be the Saul Junction to Brimscombe length, seen as likely to be the first to be reopened. Phase 2, seen as likely to be the next focus for attention (although that by no means precludes working there earlier), was the eastern section from the Thames at Inglesham to the Cotswold Water Park. Phase 3 was the difficult central length with the collapsed Sapperton Tunnel, road blockages and many locks: probably the final length to open, but again, no reason for not working there if opportunities arose. It became clear that even Phase 1 was beyond Lottery grants available, so it was subdivided. Phase 1a (Stonehouse to Brimscombe) included more heritage and regeneration potential, and so (after some soul-searching) it was (correctly, as it turned out) chosen as the initial candidate for funding grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Regional Development Agency as it matched their agenda better even though it meant restoring an isolated length of canal with no connection to the national network. Phase 1b (Saul to Stonehouse) was then the key connecting length linking the Phase 1a section to the national network. It was felt (again, correctly, as it now turns out) that the Heritage Lottery Fund would look favourably on it now, as (even though there is relatively little heritage restoration involved, and rather more engineering construction work) it will help the already restored Phase 1a section to achieve its full potential.

Phase 1b: Saul to Stonehouse

Phase 1a: Stonehouse to Brimscombe Phase 3: Brimscombe to Cerney North Wilts Canal to Swindon Phase 2: Inglesham to Cerney

Cotswold Canals Phase 1b

had got the go-ahead. We look at what’s involved - and when it will happen...

but currently doesn’t connect to anything. That’s the Phase 1a length from Stonehouse through Stroud to the site of the buried Hope Mill Lock just short of Brimscombe.

WRG and other volunteers have done a huge amount of work on this section over the last ten years or more (including restoring Griffin Mill, Ham Mill, Bowbridge and Gough’s Orchard locks). Meanwhile contractors have carried out the major engineering jobs such as building a new section of canal to avoid a length obliterated by Stroud’s old rubbish tip and new bypass road. We’re hoping the final funding to turn Brimscombe Port (a former transhipment basin) itself into a regeneration scheme with a reinstated canal basin as its centrepiece - and to complete the restoration of the short length from there to Hope Mill - will be sorted in the same timescale. Then the whole ten mile length can be opened and connected up to the national canal network in one go. When will it happen? The initial an-

nouncement said work would be complete by the end of 2023; in fact it will continue into 2024. But all in all, a lot less time than it’s taken to restore the Phase 1a length. And that’s not just a guesstimate: see our timeline for when the various sections are due to be worked on.

Will volunteers be involved? Yes,

very much so. Probably on fewer different projects than we were on the Phase 1a section, but a major task for us will be the restoration / rebuilding of Westfield Lock (which has been partially demolished) along with the reinstatement of the aqueduct / culvert which carried the canal over a stream and formed part of the same structure. If you look at the timeline you’ll see that it’s down for completion by the end of 2023. So let’s hope we can get started on it fairly soonish...

Pictures by Martin Ludgate unless credited

On the previous pages we explained where the recently funded Cotswold Canals Phase 1b length is, and how it fits in with the other phases of the restoration. Now we’ll take a detailed look at this length, and what will be involved in completing its restoration within the next four years...

Given how long it’s taken to restore the six miles of canal from Stonehouse almost to Brimscombe, it might seem that less than four years to deal with the four miles from Saul Junction to Stonehouse, even given the confirmation of funding, is a tad optimistic. But although there are some major jobs to be tackled, there’s also a great deal of work that’s already been done on this section - as this walk-through of the length will show. To be completed: part-restored Whitminster Lock

We begin at Saul Junction, where the Stroudwater Navigation leaves the navigable Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. The first few hundred yards are already in water and used for moorings and for access to a marina. This section ends at Walk Bridge, the first obstruction on the route. It carries a minor road across the canal at just a foot or two above water level, and will be replaced by a new high-level bridge.

A short distance beyond, we reach Whitminster Lock, the first of eight on the Phase 1a length. It’s a very shallow lock as a result of levels changing when the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal was built, but it will still be needed mainly function as a water control. It was partially restored some years ago, but needs completing. The reason for a water control lock being required is that the canal then joins the River Frome in a combined channel (where the river was diverted, straightened, the levels changed, and the former aqueduct demolished) in a 1970s flood relief scheme. The channel looks large enough to be navigablesized but clearance will be needed.

This ends where the canal will leave the river (a new exit will need to be excavated) at Lockham and rejoin its original course; this is the start of a section which has seen a great deal of attention from our forestry and scrub-bashing teams during the last couple of Christmas canal camps. This includes the site for Stonepitts Bridge, a new liftbridge to be built where a causeway (used for vehicle access to the worksite on Christmas camps) currently blocks the canal. An oil pipeline crossing the canal with insufficient headroom will need to be moved, but Occupation Bridge, a traditional brick-built structure linking farm fields, survives in good condition. This length of canal (and WRG’s scrub-bashing involvement) comes to an end at the A38 crossing, where until recently the canal disappeared for a mile, a victim of the M5 motorway construction and associated changes to the connecting main roads in

the 1970s. Now, however, this crossing has been reinstated [you will have seen pictures in recent issues of Navvies of the new channel being built across the middle of the A38 roundabout, via with two new concrete bridges - see over for latest pic], all funded by a £4m grant from a Highways England budget for remediation of environmental damage caused by national road network construction in the past.

Beyond here, the canal will take a completely new route - partly because as mentioned above the original line has been obliterated; partly because the most practicable way of creating a new navigable M5 crossing is to share the existing bridge over the River Frome, which is some way south west of the original route. This will need a new Bristol Road Lock as the original is not only buried under the A38 but would be the wrong height for the diverted canal anyway. M5: the canal will squeeze under alongside the river

Emerging from the M5 crossing, the canal will continue on its new course alongside the river for some distance before taking a left turn, climbing through a New Lock and rejoining the infilled original route at the surviving Westfield Bridge.

Westfield Lock is part buried and also part demolished, and its restoration will be one of the major projects for WRG and other visiting volunteers - including construction of the Oldbury Aqueduct at the head of the lock to take the canal over the Oldbury Brook.

Here the canal channel reappears and has been partially restored including chamber works some years ago at Dock Lock. Pike Bridge was rebuilt in 2005, and the adjacent Pike Lock has also been partially restored. It is followed by a length completely restored and operated as a trip-boat length for many years by Cotswold Canals Trust, including the navigable Blunder Lock and Newtown Lock and surviving hump-backed Newtown Bridge.

The next bridge, Bonds Mill Bridge, was the scene of an innovative project in the 1990s to rebuild it as a liftbridge constructed from advanced plastic materials - not entirely successfully, so the deck will need replacing. This is another section where the canalside trees and vegetation have been targeted by scrub-bashing volunteers from WRG, KESCRG and other groups in recent winters. It ends at the Ocean Railway Bridge, the final major obstruction on this length, where a the canal is carried under the Birmingham to Bristol main line in a small unnavigable culvert - which is to be replaced by a full size canal bridge. Beyond the railway, the canal emerges into the wide pool known (ironically?) as The Ocean. This is the end of Phase 1b, and the start of the (almost) already completely restored six miles of the Phase 1a length reaching nearly to Brimscombe Port. So that’s the route and how it’s going to be reopened: turn over for timeline of when it will happen... page 19

So how long will it take? Here’s the provisional schedule for completion of all the individual projects which make up the four miles of the Phase 1b restoration. Note that these will inevitably be subject to changes as the restoration progresses, but they (hopefully) give a good idea of how it will proceed. And how the important volunteer project - the second to last in the 2023-4 section of the list - rebuilding Westfield Lock and the adjacent Oldbury Aqueduct (which WRG volunteers will be heavily involved in) fits into the overall programme.

Scheduled for completion in 2020-21

Nov 2020 Jan 2021 Apr 2021 Jun 2021 Jul 2021 Jul 2021 Jul 2021 Jul 2021 Aug 2021 Oct 2021 Oct 2021 Nov 2021 Dec 2021 Dec 2021 Dec 2021 A38 Roundabout Crossing construction: finished Newtown Lock reconditioning Pike Lock restoration Oil Pipeline to A38 channel restoration A38 New Lock construction Mooring Basin above A38 New Lock construction Blunder Lock reconditioning Ocean Railway Bridge construction Bonds Mill Bridge repair Walk Bridge construction Oil Pipeline removal Dock Lock restoration Saul Junction to Walk Bridge channel works Whitminster Bridge & Lock restoration Stonepitts Bridge to Oil Pipeline channel works

Scheduled for completion in 2022

Feb 2022 Mar 2022 Mar 2022 Apr 2022 Jun 2022 Jun 2022 Stonepitts Bridge

construction Bonds Mill Embankment repair River Frome canalisation Walk Bridge to Whitminster Bridge channel works

Newtown Lock to Bonds Mill Bridge

channel works Mooring Basin above A38 New Lock to M5 new channel construction

Gloucestershire Council

Jul 2022 Sep 2022 Oct 2022 Oct 2022 Nov 2022 Dec 2022 channel works Whitminster Lock to River Frome new channel connection Lockham River Frome to canal new channel connection Blunder Lock to Newtown Lock channel works Dock Lock to Pike Lock channel works Lockham to Stonepitts Bridge channel works

Scheduled for completion in 2023-4 Cotswold Canals:

Jan 2023 Feb 2023 Aug 2023 Oct 2023 Dec 2023 Feb 2024 M5 Crossing construction Oldbury Aqueduct to Dock Lock channel works M5 to New Lock east of M5 new channel construction New Lock East of M5 construction Westfield Lock and Oldbury Aqueduct restoration / rebuilding New Lock east of M5 to Westfield Lock new channel construction

Gloucester & Phase 1b restoration

Sharpness Canal

To Gloucester Saul Junction

To Walk Bridge: new bridge to be built

Saul to Stonehouse

Sharpness Canalised River Frome section

Whitminster

Bridge and Lock Stonepitts Bridge: new

Lockham liftbridge to be built

Oil pipeline to be moved Occupation Bridge

A38

A38 crossing: two new bridges completed Oct 2020

River Frome M5

(unnavigable)

Mooring basin to

New lock to be built be built Oldbury Aqueduct

Original route obliterated by M5 and connecting roads

Diversion to be built

Diverted canal will share existing River Frome New lock to A419 Volunteer project: Westfield Lock and

be builtbridge under M5 motorway to be rebuilt

Dock Lock Pike Lock and Bridge Blunder Lock Newtown

Lock Newtown Bridge Stonehouse

Bonds Mill Bridge

Ocean Railway Bridge ‘The Ocean’