Waterfront 14 Autumn/Winter 2021

Page 16

Restoration in action Work to bring back more of our historic canals never ends. Today, there are 97 ongoing or potential restoration projects underway in England and Wales, a number of these are being undertaken on our canals, including the Grantham Canal. We visited the beautiful Vale of Belvoir, where volunteers from Grantham Canal Society and Waterway Recovery Group have rebuilt locks 14 and 15 from scratch. With support from our experts Mark Owen and Karen Rice, and thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, these amazing volunteer groups have brought more of this stunning rural canal back to life.

waterways for 42 years, Mark was used to repairing locks with a skilled construction team within six weeks. Here were a bunch of keen, eager dentists, scientists and air conditioning engineers. Not a trained bricklayer among them.

“The first time we went down to the lock and met the Grantham Canal Society volunteers,” says site supervisor Mark Owen, “I thought ‘What the heck have I done’. But they have been absolutely fantastic.” Having worked on

Project manager, Karen Rice, picks up the story: “During the first few weeks I have an enduring memory of volunteers chomping at the bit needing a lot of training. And when we began to excavate the lock walls, we realised they were

“ Mark and Karen have given us focus and continuity between all the different volunteers. They’ve kept us going on the right rails.” Richard Caunt, Grantham Canal Society volunteer

“ A volunteer-led project on this scale was an experiment But we’ve all learned what can be achieved, when we put our minds to it.” 16

Karen Rice, Canal & River Trust project manager


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