Restoration Feature Burslem Port

Restoration feature

You may not even have heard of the restoration that’s hosting our October Canal

Burslem Port? Where’s that then?

Those not intimately acquainted with the canal network might be forgiven for not immediately being able to pinpoint the Burslem Port Project, the canal restoration scheme which (if you’re lucky and this issue comes out on time) will be about to host its first full week-long WRG Canal Camp as this Navvies drops through your letterbox. Or which (if you’re not so lucky) you’ll still be able to read about in the camp report in the next issue. After all, it’s not quite up there with the Montgomery or the Cotswold Canals when it comes to high profile schemes. But after quite a lot of the inevitable behind-the-scenes negotiating, campaigning and talking, it appears that practical work is gathering pace on this short (and therefore potentially ‘quick-win’) canal reopening project.

So where is it, then? Well, Burslem is one of the lesser-known of the ‘five towns’ of the north Staffordshire Potteries (formerly) industrial area – the others are Stoke, Tunstall, Hanley, Fenton and Longton (yes, I know!) And the Burslem

Several wharves were built on the canal to cater for the local pottery industry, bringing in raw materials – clay and coal – and taking out finished ware for export via the

Mersey. But in 1963 a major breach closed the Branch, and rather than it being repaired, the Branch was shut and dammed off where it met the main line. It was later filled in (burying an unfortunate working boat that Trent & Mersey Canal

Burslem Branch

Port Project aims to reopen a short arm of the Trent & Mersey Canal which linked the industrial areas of Burslem to the canal’s main line.

The history: The Trent & Mersey Canal’s main line was opened in 1777. Its summit level passed within a mile of Burslem on its way south from the top of the Cheshire Locks and Harecastle Tunnel towards Etruria Top Lock and the start of the long descent down the Trent Valley to Stone and eventually to join the River Trent near Shardlow. But Burslem had to wait almost 30 years before it acquired a direct connection to the waterways, when the half-mile Burslem Branch opened in 1805. It linked the canal’s main line to a basin on the edge of the town, with a horse tramway continuing into the town centre. page 20

(and Uttoxeter one day)

Burslem Port Project

Camp - but it might just be the sort of ‘quick win’ restoration that could succeed

had been stranded by the breach). Over the following decades its banks sank as a result of coal-mining subsidence, its course became overgrown with trees and vegetation, while many of the industrial buildings along its banks were demolished or fell derelict.

The restoration back-story: The first moves towards reopening the Burslem Branch came in 1999, when the members of the local branch of the Inland Waterways Association began campaigning for its restoration, holding meetings and demonstrating local support for its reopening – both as a navigation and a boost to an area in serious need of regeneration.

The name ‘Burslem Port’ was coined for the project, an informal organisation of that name was launched, and a report was commissioned which showed how the canal could fit into a regeneration scheme for the neighbouring Etruria Valley ex-industrial area, formerly the site of the Shelton Bar Steel Works. A feasibility study showed the entire refurbishment and regeneration plan for the canal and neighbouring properties would cost £58m but would generate an ‘invisible’ income in benefits for the local area which would pay this back in around 15 years. A setback in 2008 saw the canal omitted from the local masterplan document, but a campaign by Burslem Port Project and IWA saw it added in 2009.

Practical work began in 2010 – and some longer-standing Navvies readers may recall the report in issue 241 of a five-day WRG mini-camp supporting the Burslem Port Project (combined with work on another site nearby - clearance of one of the out-of-use duplicate lock chambers on the Cheshire Locks series). It was largely exploratory work, and we succeeded in uncovering a length of the concrete washwall of the canal, and used a level to measure how much it had subsided compared to the modern-day level of the Trent & Mersey main line’s banks (which since the 1960s has been raised to keep pace with the subsidence).

In 2011 what had up to now been an informal group was reconstituted as the Burslem Port Trust, with representatives of IWA and the Trent & Mersey Canal Society, to take the project forward, and in 2012 the canal was added to the T&M Canal Conservation Area. Unfortunately the same year a fire damaged a historic canalside warehouse building. 2014 saw the publication of the Burslem Port Brochure, putting the case for

restoring the Branch to improve the whole area, while on the ground the Trust launched regular volunteer work parties to clear the route of the canal.

Where are we at now? There’s a bit of a feeling that the Burslem Port Project has spent a fair amount of the last two decades waiting for the right moment to happen. But after 20 years Burslem Port Trust says “That moment is now” – with the regeneration of the Etruria Valley getting going in recent years just across the Trent & Mersey Canal from the Burslem Branch junction, redevelopment of Middleport (the area to the west of the north end of the Branch) under way including new housing near the canal’s terminus, followed by sites along the rest of the canal, and plans for new road links making the area more accessible. As the Trust puts it “There is an opportunity that has never existed before to think about Middleport in a completely new way, as a modern residential area with great employment and transport links, beside an attractive waterway, right next to open land. This opportunity must not be missed.”

At the same time as expressing these optimistic feelings, the Trust has been active on a practical level too. Two years ago it launched a plan christened ‘Footsteps’ to build a path along the route of the Branch, with interpretation signs covering the canal’s heritage as well as the potential for reopening it – and attracted support from the Community Investment Fund for the Trust’s volunteers to do much of the work. Sadly the pandemic then meant the Trust’s working parties had to go on hold. They have now restarted (backed by short-term employment of a contractor to catch up with the backlog of vegetation clearance from a year’s break), and in late October WRG will be boosting their efforts with a week’s canal camp from 23 to 30 October – with the aim of carrying out the bulk of the work to complete the path.

And then what? As regards rebuilding the actual canal (and remember, the banks are going to have to be built up to counter the subsidence of the past 60 years), it is going to be necessary to attract serious external funding for construction work. But BPT has put together figures indicating that a restored canal with small marina on it could see 2300 boat movements a year, support 270 new waterside homes, attract 65,000 visitors annually, create the equivalent of 133 permanent full time jobs plus 295 temporary construction jobs and 21 apprenticeships, and attract £500,000 a year of spending on retail and leisure – and is hopeful that these figures, plus the impact of the ‘footsteps’ project on showing the benefits of opening up the route, will justify support (for example through Government grants or developer contributions under a Section 106 planning agreement) for rebuilding the canal. Martin Ludgate (with a lot of help from burslemport.org.uk)

WRG uncovers the canal wall on the 2010 dig