Issue 15 Spring/Summer 2022
Waterfront The Canal & River Trust Magazine
Getting Games ready The canals at the heart of Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games
Working through the winter How we get vital canal works done ahead of the summer
Wildlife on the waterways How you can help nature recover along canals in 2022
#ActNowForCanals
Welcome Welcome to your new issue of Waterfront, which looks forward, back and in-depth at how your support helps make life better by water. We begin by celebrating our charity’s 10th anniversary, reflecting on the successes and challenges ahead with former trustee John Dodwell and celebrity canal fan, Brian Blessed. And we look forward to a busy programme of Let’s Events that will help every canal lover join in the celebrations. It’s been another productive winter of working hard on canals across the country. You’ll discover how we’ve been working on 48 different canals to keep locks working and our towpaths open, as we protect our canal heritage for the future. We’ve been busy improving canals in Birmingham in particular, giving people a sustainable way to travel between venues during this summer’s Commonwealth Games. And making canals into venues themselves for sporting, cultural, and community events, leaving a legacy for the future. Looking ahead, we share exciting plans to help nature and wildlife to recover along all 2,000 miles of our canals in 2022. See how this important and unique habitat can be a super-highway for biodiversity, connecting up special places for nature right across England and Wales. Meanwhile, you can see how our community roots programme is helping build support for canals from the ground up in both Liverpool and London. Learn how your gifts are helping people enjoy and care for precious blue and green space on their doorstep. We also report back on the findings of our many citizen science projects by the canal. Discover how what you’ve told us about your experiences will help shape the future of your local stretch. We also meet the next generation of willing young people, ready to restore, revive and revitalise canals in years to come, thanks to a gift in your Will. As ever, we hope Waterfront helps you see how canals near you are changing for the better for everyone to enjoy, both now and for the future. Let us know what you’ve seen at supportercare@canalrivertrust.org.uk.
Created by the Canal & River Trust and Cherry Tiger Ltd. All content is owned by the Canal & River Trust and may not be reproduced in any form without permission. Contact: Darroch Reid, Canal & River Trust, National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, CH65 4FW. UK registered charity: 1146792. Printed at Seacourt Limited, a net-positive company powered by 100% renewable energy, using no water or chemicals and generating zero landfill.
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In this issue: 4-5
6-7
Our 10th Anniversary: a reflection
Making wildlife better by water
John Dodwell, a former trustee of our charity, celebrates a decade of our caring for canals by reflecting on our progress
Discover our exciting plans to help nature recover across all 2,000 miles of canals, rivers and towpaths in 2022
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10-11
#GamesOn
Working through the winter
See how we’re making canals a welcoming venue for visitors to Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games
See what we’ve been doing over the winter, to keep waterways open this summer
12-13 Rooted in communities
16-17 The path to a sustainable future
Learn how we reach out to people living close to our canals, helping them benefit from the water on their doorstep
Find out how we’re helping towpath users share the space safely, so we can all get out of the car, fight climate change, and get fit and healthy
18-19 Talking on the towpath Join us on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in Sefton and meet walkers, soldiers and duck feeders out for the day
22-23 Give canals your eyes and ears Discover how your input into our citizen science projects will help shape the future of our canals
24 An invitation to craft the future of canals
14-15 Blessed waters We take to the water with Brian Blessed to see how canals are calming for even the biggest characters
20-21 Let’s celebrate Find out what’s on by your local stretch this summer as our Let’s Events celebrate 10 years of work
Learn how the next generation of apprentices can protect our canal heritage, with a gift in your Will
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Our 10th Anniversary:
a reflection It’s been a decade of great change, as our charity has continued to protect, preserve and improve many of our waterways, while championing their importance in our communities for wellbeing. Ahead of our 10th anniversary this summer, Waterfront asked former and founding trustee, John Dodwell, to reflect on our achievements to date and challenges lying ahead.
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Like many of us, John fell in love with the waterways in his youth, messing about in canoes on the Thames. Aged just 16 when he joined the canal movement, he then aided the restoration of the Stourbridge, Ashton, Lower Peak Forest, and Droitwich Canals (as well as the non Trust Upper Avon) and rose to become general secretary of the Inland Waterway Association. Today, he still chairs the Montgomery Canal Restoration Partnership and of course, helped the successful transition from British Waterways to the Canal & River Trust in 2012. But what prompted the creation of the charity? “Three main reasons,” John explains. “Firstly, becoming a charity gave us the freedom to make our own long-term decisions to protect and preserve the waterways, free from sudden changes of government policy or cuts in funding. Secondly, it allowed us to raise wider support from charitable trusts and foundations, or Friends of the canals, like your readers. And thirdly, it allowed us to invite people to get involved and volunteer for canals. It’s natural for a charity like ours to embrace and encourage volunteering, but in the old days, people didn’t always see why they should help. That’s now changed completely.” And does John feel that those three objectives have been achieved? “I’d say yes, although there’s further to go with securing support from charitable foundations and also raising awareness of the option to make an impact with a gift in their Will among our Friends and supporters. The Trust has put canals at the heart of communities and really got people involved in caring for them. Just look at the 3,000 people who now volunteer regularly, the 250 canal adoption groups, the 440 miles of Green Flag waterways created. Then there’s the millions of pounds of funding that’s been secured for towpath improvements from local authorities. There’s been impressive redevelopment of urban canals in places like New Islington in Manchester and recently the Roundhouse and Port Loop in Birmingham. But the fundamentals of keeping waterways running is vital. Only by keeping enough water in the right place, making sure locks are repaired and easy to use, cutting back vegetation or dredging can future generations enjoy the wellbeing that comes from time by water.”
The Trust has made huge strides over the last decade but the journey won’t end there as John explains: “When it comes to the future, one of the big impacts of the Canal & River Trust is to help everyone understand that canals have social purpose, making us all feel healthier and happier. Remember, almost nine million people live within half a mile of a canal, so what we do affects an awful lot of people. The waterways have an economic purpose too, keeping people in work in boating, tourism and hospitality. They provide vital national infrastructure for water transfers, gas, electricity and internet networks. And they have an environmental value too, bringing nature into our towns and cities and tackling biodiversity loss and climate change.” “For instance, personally, I’d like to see more use of the big Yorkshire waterways for sustainable barges. Each 500 tonne barge takes 25 lorries off the road! Another big personal ambition of mine is to see the Montgomery Canal fully restored and connected back to the network. But the Trust can’t do that alone, it has to be part of much wider government partnerships.” “With a government grant review pending, the next few months are crucial. But after 10 years the charity now has a following of over one million people. That’s a big movement who can help act for canals. About 237 MPs have canals in their constituencies and they need to see and feel that groundswell of support. By coming together for canals we can secure their future. No one group of users can afford to pay for the benefits – to coin an old phrase it’s a case of ‘Waterways for all’.” 5
Up to 90%
Making wildlife better by water Where there is water, there is life, especially on canals. Although these artificial waterways were built for trade and industry, over time they’ve become an important haven for wildlife. Come with us as we explore four key canal habitats, where nature feels very much at home. Seeing elegant white swans, buzzing bees or fluttering dragonflies draws many people to the water. But while nature may seem to be thriving on our canals, this masks shocking historic declines in our wider countryside. As many ponds, wetlands, wildflower meadows and scrub were lost during the 20th century, today canals can help nature recover and provide a precious refuge for many species. Your support helps us manage our network of canals and towpaths so that they are rich, diverse habitats, full of food, shelter and safe places to breed and raise young. Better still, they offer a safe 2,000 mile long wildlife superhighway, helping to connect up pockets of habitat so that wildlife can spread along the banks into new areas, including the heart of our towns and cities. . 6
of lowland ponds in the UK were lost in the 20th century
Source: The State of Nature Report 2019
Blooming, buzzing towpaths Two hundred years ago, the original builders of our canals left a wonderful legacy, planting over a million trees to firm up cuttings and embankments, as well as over 600 miles of hedgerow to protect the towpath. The greenery, pollen, seeds and fruits they provide now feeds and shelters wildlife. Today, we keep towpaths and canal banks clear and safe for boaters, walkers and anglers. But your support is also helping us plant more and mow less, so that wildflowers and healthy hedgerows can help bees, butterflies and other insects thrive. This also gives hedgehogs, shrews and nesting birds a home next to the water. You’re helping bring wildflowers back to towpaths after 97% of wildflower meadows were lost between the 1930s and 1984 .
Greening up our banks The margins of our canals is where the magic happens. Soft banks are ideal homes for threatened water voles. Reeds and flowering rushes help clean the water, attract insects and provide vital nurseries for young fish among their stems and roots. Plentiful fish attract kingfishers and herons. Coots, moorhens, swans and ducks nest and raise young right on the banks in the safety of the vegetation. Where plants struggle to naturally green up our banks, especially in our towns and cities, you’re helping us introduce both floating reedbeds and new waterside margins, made of plastic-free coir matting, that help make healthy homes for all manner of waterway wildlife.
The water vole is the UK’s most rapidly declining mammal
Heritage homes for nature Wildlife even has a home in our historic canal structures. Emptying a lock reveals a host of ferns, lichens, molluscs and even freshwater sponges, clinging to gates and walls. Tunnels and pillboxes along our canals make wonderful homes for bats. Lizards and amphibians love to bask in the water or on sunlit bridge brickwork. Barn owls hunt along our embankments and field margins at dusk. We have to monitor when tree roots or badgers dig into canal walls or embankments, or when invasive species overwhelm native wildlife. But with your help, our ecologists, engineers and heritage experts balance the needs of nature, history and safety.
Kingfishers love to nest on steep-sided canal cuttings, but breeding success depends on healthy fish stocks
Bringing clean waters to life Good water quality in our canals is crucial for wildlife. Without clean water, the whole canal ecosystem collapses. Fifty years ago many canals were so polluted and neglected no life could survive. Today, finding otters in the heart of our cities tells us how much has changed. But there’s no room for complacency. Our ecologists and hydrologists work together to stop dangerous pollutants, run-offs and silts creeping back in. With over 63 designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on our canals, we constantly protect and improve our waters to help wildlife recover right across our canal network.
Otters are only found in clean, healthy waters thriving with life
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#GamesOn As Birmingham prepares to welcome the world to the Commonwealth Games, your support is helping get the city’s canals #GamesOn. Thanks to you, the canals that helped build the city over 200 years ago will now give visitors from around the country and across the globe a green route to the games. “We’re really excited to showcase the regions canals during 2022,” says Ian Lane, head of operational projects and lead for the Games in the West Midlands. “The 520 miles of canals across the entire West Midlands were here before the railways and motorways and helped put our region at the heart of the industrial revolution. Today we are reimagining canals. A place of trade has become a place of wellbeing and brings benefits to us all.”
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With reputedly more miles of canal than Venice, and 51% of Birmingham’s population living within walking distance of a towpath, the Trust is a founding member of ‘United by Birmingham’ a community programme to ensure an inclusive, sustainable celebration of the city and its people, designed to leave a long-lasting legacy. Importantly, canals connect up many of the Games’ venues, so as Ian explains: “Whether you’re interested in gymnastics in the city centre, athletics at the Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr or swimming at the aquatic centre in Sandwell, we’ll be encouraging active travel with walking and cycling routes along towpaths to allow people to travel around using our waterways.”
As Ian tells us, on top of that, the plan is to also encourage participation in activity, so teams are working alongside Sport England and other partners to give people the chance to try out kayaking, bell-boating and fishing along the local canals. Our canals will be a part of the Queen’s Baton Relay, which right now is crisscrossing the Commonwealth on the way to the opening ceremony. Beyond the Games themselves, a festival will celebrate the culture and history of Birmingham’s diverse communities. There are exciting plans for interactive art trails along towpaths, mass-dance events beside the water and pop-up museums to name but a few. Meanwhile, five walking audio tours are already available from our hub at the Birmingham Roundhouse. But before all these canal events go ahead, we’re already working hard to make sure our towpaths are clean, green and welcoming. We’re looking for 1,000 new volunteers from the local community to join us, to become Games operatives, rangers, enablers, educators, and champions. Many of our wonderful existing
“ Multi-layered events are being planned across the summer so residents and visitors alike can love and appreciate the region’s canals through the Games’ legacy.” I an Lane, head of operational projects, West Midlands lead for the Games
volunteers and partners are already helping clear canals of litter and plastic pollution, painting locks, removing graffiti and helping us in #GettingGamesReady. Still more are involved in helping to build a network of canalside wildlife corridors that will connect up seven Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) across the West Midlands and plant a 12-mile long community orchard between Worcester and Wolverhampton. Thanks to your support, the Commonwealth Games will leave a legacy for future generations where local communities find health, beauty, inspiration and pride in their city along every mile of our canals.
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Working through the winter It’s been another busy winter delivering 168 large-scale works across 48 canals to ensure our waterways are shipshape for the coming spring. Come with us as we look at just some of the vital engineering improvements made, including work to keep water in the Kennet & Avon Canal. As always, our winter works have been ambitious and challenging, with the installation of 123 new sustainably sourced oak gates at 67 locks, including the famous Bingley Five Rise Locks. Yet despite our best laid plans, there is always the unexpected to account for. Even before the winter storms, a canal breach at Rishton near Accrington led to a partial closure of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. That’s why we constantly invest in our waterways and 74 reservoirs to maintain the correct water levels for boaters, anglers and towpath visitors as well as protecting biodiversity along our canals. Undeniably, keeping water at the right level can be challenging on a 200 year-old network. Lock gates leak. Water can seep away from ageing canal beds or embankments. Increasing floods or droughts due to climate change only exacerbate the problems.
But how do you fill a canal without any reservoirs feeding it? On the Kennet & Avon Canal, which relies almost entirely on ground and river water, we’ve been investing in new pumps to keep famous sites like Caen Hill Locks topped up. As you can see from our diagram, the Kennet & Avon Canal has always relied on water pumps to push water uphill ever since it was built. Claverton Pumping Station alone delivers 300 litres of water a second out of the River Avon and into the canal. That’s like filling 10 Olympic swimming pools every day. In addition, each set of locks on this side of the canal has a ‘daisy chain’ of pumps to take water heading down the locks back uphill. At Caen Hill Locks alone, the water pumps help water climb some 73 metres in the space of just two miles. And in total the pumps lift water some 136m between Claverton and Crofton.
Where does your water comes from? Find out how we manage water on your local canal at canalrivertrust.co.uk/watersources
Alamy
Caen Hill Locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal
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Summit Pound is the highest point of the canal
Claverton Pumping Station Wootton Rivers & Cadley Locks & Pump
Crofton Locks Pump & Reservoir
Caen Hill Locks
River Thames
Bristol Avon
Seend Locks Pump & Feed Semington & Harris Lock & Pump Bradford on Avon Lock & Pump
Claverton Pumps
The original early Victorian pumps were steampowered, but now even 20th century electric pumps need improving. So over the last three years, the Kennet & Avon Resilience Project has surveyed all the pump stations on the Western side of the Kennet & Avon Canal between Bath and Crofton. This work has then led onto replacing some of the older pumps and associated infrastructure, upgrading the worn-out components and planning for future upgrades. Where new pumps and control valves have already been installed they are proving to be much more efficient, easier to maintain and will help us reduce our carbon footprint. To keep all the pumps in the chain operating at optimum efficiency, they now talk to each other via a digital water monitoring system known as SCADA, which helps us keep water levels up and electricity use down.
Gloucester Docks
Water pumps aren’t just important on the Kennet & Avon Canal. This winter has also seen two new three-tonne pumps installed to manage the water supply in Gloucester Docks, thanks to you and players of People’s Postcode Lottery. They will also keep water levels on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal high enough for navigation, and help to supply drinking water to nearly half of the 600,000 people who live in Bristol. With your support, crucial long-term work such as this takes place every winter, so the future of our canals is protected for years to come.
Some of our new pumps costing £100,000 each, will help to cut our electricity use by 10% and can fill an Olympic sized swimming pool every 21 minutes
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Rooted in communities Our work to make life better by water has the biggest impact in the cities and towns the canals and river navigations were originally built to serve. It’s here that dynamic and well-connected community roots co-ordinators like Delroy reach out to people who live right by the water. All thanks to your support and players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Tottenham-based Delroy works from the ground up, listening to what people need and helping them find it on the River Lee Navigation. “It’s important to be a face of your local waterway,” says Delroy. “I used to be a volunteer lock keeper so have a real passion for it. But not everyone does. Many people don’t know the river is on their doorstep or
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have a bad perception of it. But canals and navigations are different now. So we’re reaching out, to all sorts of communities to say, the waterways are here for you.” Delroy’s community is a broad church. He’s delighted that local environmental groups have discovered great crested newts in local riverside
Burnley & Blackburn
Sefton, in Liverpool
Sheffield
Sandwell & Walsall in the Black Country Torfaen, around Pontypool in Wales
Leicester Coventry
Brent
Tottenham Hale
Community roots in 2021*
7,145
volunteering hours
37,660 people attending events
£500k of funding from players of People’s Postcode Lottery
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locations around our canal network
Some of the participants in our community roots programme ponds. Elderly people, who’ve felt lonely and isolated during the pandemic, are now enjoying wellness classes and narrowboat trips. Young people from the local college are picking up litter, as they canoe and kayak for the first time. People working on community payback schemes are helping to cut back towpath vegetation. Delroy is also proud to support the local Hindu and Sikh community as they come together for funerals by water. As he explains, water can be a source of comfort for everyone: “You know water is a great problem solver, especially if you are
*1st Feb 2021- 30th Nov 2021
struggling. Finding that peace and calm, trying something that gives you a new sense of purpose or meeting new people on the canal can all make such a difference.”
approaches they take vary due to the different areas they work in. To get local people onboard, both believe it’s important to work from your roots up.
Over on the west side of London, Martha is doing similar sterling work creating a thriving, welcoming towpath on the Grand Union Canal in Brent and on the nearby Welsh Harp Reservoir that helps to feed the canal. Thanks to Martha the reservoir is now alive with bird watching groups, nature trails and canoe clubs, as well as people taking action against fly-tipping.
And that’s exactly what our programme does from London to Liverpool. In every one of our focus areas there’s a Delroy or a Martha, actively making life better by water for local people. And with your help in the future, perhaps there can be a community roots officer working along every mile of canal that needs one.
Like many of their colleagues around the country, Delroy and Martha have a background in social care but the challenges they face and the
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Blessed waters Even the boldest of characters need some quiet time now and then. And Brian Blessed was happy to drop the actor’s mask when speaking to Waterfront recently. Away from the stage, he reveals there’s nothing he loves more than the stillness and peace of spending time by water. 10 years after Brian supported our first ever campaign to recruit volunteer lock keepers, it was wonderful to catch up again with the star of Z-cars, Cats, Flash Gordon, Blackadder and Henry V to hear why our canals and rivers mean so much to him. As he cheerfully admits, he might not be the first person you’d expect to meet on a canal: “I do have the reputation of being a noisy man, but my biggest love in life is space, peace and quiet. I spend a lot of time with Kenneth Branagh who recently described me, much to the interviewer’s surprise as being ‘the quietest person I have ever met’.” Tracing his love of water back, Brian explains it all began in his Yorkshire childhood: “I was born in Mexborough in 1936. We were surrounded by canals and rivers. The Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation ran right past my school in Goldthorpe. Patrick Stewart and I also went to summer drama school in the Calder Valley. That was always the centre of the earth for me. We had wonderful views of the Rochdale Canal running through Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd, where Ted Hughes comes from. It was just a wonderful, beautiful place, right in the middle of the valley. Mystical and wonderful to explore as a child.” Rivers and canals also played a big part in the books that Brian loved most as a child. “I always felt a certain affinity with Ratty from Wind in the Willows you know,” says Brian. “I share his enthusiasm for boats. But there’s also this
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wonderful, less well-known passage when Ratty meets Mr Mole and talks about his love of water. Mole asks: ‘You really live by the river?’ And Rat replies: ‘By it and with it and on it and in it… It’s my world, and I don’t want any other. What it hasn’t got is not worth having, and what it doesn’t know is not worth knowing.’” A keen supporter of canals and also butterfly conservation, Brian has previously given a canalside talk in support of the team restoring the Cromford Canal, on the borders of Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire. He explains: “Canals took a bit of a beating after the war, chemicals contaminated our countryside, killing three-quarters of our butterfly population and ruining our rivers as well. But that’s all changed, thank God. Now we are winning. Canals are the pride, joy and lifeblood of our country. Young and old alike are sharing the magic of the canals and people need them badly.” Having reached the ripe old age of 85, there’s no sign of this famous adventurer slowing down. After attempting to climb Mount Everest and completing his cosmonaut training in Russia, Brian says he’d love to go on a worldwide canal adventure. “I’d like to be exotic and do the Suez or Panama Canal, and there are vast natural canals leading to Mount Ararat. Oh, there’s no end. But the most important thing is that we are preserving them here in England and Wales. We need to keep fighting the good fight, constantly be on our guard to protect and preserve them.”
“ To me, canals and rivers and streams bring about peace, wellbeing and quiet. A feeling that is mystical and mysterious. Time by water helps me immensely.” Brian Blessed
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The path to a sustainable future During the last decade, we’ve improved hundreds of miles of towpaths, to revitalise our canals and encourage walkers, runners and cyclists to travel actively, sustainably, and considerately along them. Come with us as we discover how our towpaths can help reduce our carbon footprint and take us towards a greener future. “A chap emailed me recently, who had just cycled with his eight year old, all the way from Leeds to Liverpool,” explains Dick Vincent, our marketing operations and delivery advisor. “He told me that it’s the only place in England that he felt safe to cycle that far with his son … and that’s probably true. Canals are great for adventures.” As Dick points out, towpaths provide a wonderful 2,000 mile long network of walking, cycling and running routes right on our doorsteps. And that’s why he suggests that our National Towpath Network is similar to, but quite different from, the National Cycling Network run by our partners Sustrans. “We have to remember that towpaths aren’t like roads, pavements, cycle lanes or running tracks. They are quiet, slow, special places for everyone to enjoy and share. They offer so much more than just A to B and most people are on foot. That’s why we’re piloting new devices like SID, our Speed Information Displays, which warn cyclists about their speed and give them a smile when they slow down.” Dick says towpaths are undoubtedly helping to get people out of their cars and onto their feet. He tells us: “I’d say London is probably ahead of the curve in welcoming walkers and cyclists onto the towpath. But Birmingham, Manchester, 16
Leeds and every major city on our network is seeing more people use the canals for healthy, active travel. What better lead to follow than Dr Gemma Bridge, Leeds’ first ‘Running Mayor’? As a keen runner and world championship standard race-walker, she uses the Leeds & Liverpool Canal regularly to train and travel sustainably across the city. “The premise of being a ‘Running Mayor’ is to encourage more people to run as they commute, go to school or complete everyday journeys and errands,” explains Gemma. “I work with businesses to encourage them to provide shower and locker facilities that make running to work practical.” Gemma is also an academic specialising in Public Health, so she’s very clear on the benefits of towpath use for our health during the pandemic, and for the planet in the face of climate change: “Everyone now understands that running is good for your physical and mental health and gets you out of cars and off crowded public transport.” Tackling climate change might seem hard to do all on our own, but Gemma says making small changes can make a big difference to our local areas and our health. “So I encourage people to enjoy being outside and spending time by water. And if that prevents a car journey, then so much the better. There’s so many wonderful canals you can run along. We just need to use them more.” Little by little there are small changes we can all make, to help create a more sustainable world.
Improving our towpaths 57 miles of towpath • 2improved since 2012 • Allowing an estimated: • 4.8 million walking visitors • 2.1 million running visitors • 1 .1 million cycling visitors
every two weeks on average
Gemma trains on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal towpath at Kirkstall. Footfall has increased by 85% on this stretch after improvements worth £2M were made along 13 miles towards Shipley.
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Talking on the towpath
Even on a cold November day in the aftermath of Storm Arwen, there were plenty of hardy souls to meet along the Sefton and Bootle end of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. From walking group members to bird-feeders, former soldiers to paddlers, Waterfront met warm and friendly Liverpudlians, with plenty to say.
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John Local resident, John, spends his retirement paddling up and down the Leeds & Liverpool Canal for 10 miles each day
Samantha Marine
Maureen
Kevin
As a community roots coordinator, funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, Sam is the driving force of activities along Sefton’s canal. “It’s my job to supercharge people spending time by water. I run paddleboarding and kayaking sessions. I work with NHS Sefton to run walks for people referred to the mental health outpatients facility. Eight canal adoption groups help to maintain a stretch. There’s also exciting work with street artists and the local poetry society planned.”
81 year-old Maureen is a stalwart of the weekly walking group: “Don’t get me started, otherwise I’ll talk the hind legs off a donkey,” she says. “I love walking by water. I used to walk with rambling friends, but now I’m the only one left. I like the group, walking’s no fun on your own. It’s good to talk, but if you want to be quiet that’s fine… just drop back and stay in your thoughts. If you’re in a difficult situation walking gives you another perspective on things. I try to be philosophical. Why worry about things you can’t change?”
Kevin volunteers with the walking group, back-marking to keep everyone safe. “For people like Maureen, you know it’s just a chance to have a bit of a gab,” teases Kevin. “For others, it’s a great way to get out of the house and get outdoors in the fresh air every week. I’m a kayaker down in Albert Dock, but through the group I’m starting to explore the canal much more. So it’s opening my eyes to the water on my doorstep too.”
Steve, Patricia and Jack
Liam and Chris
Tony
“This is our grandson Jack, and we walk along here every Monday,” says Steve proudly. “We also ride along the canal on the weekend. We just upgraded our mountain bikes about a year ago to electric ones, because my knees have gone! I love coming along here to see all the wildlife. We’ve noticed a lot more people using the canal since lockdown, ramblers, anglers, family groups. It’s a great way to get into town one way, or out into the countryside the other.”
We met Liam and Chris marching purposely in full kit. When we stopped them for a chat it made perfect sense. “We were soldiers together. We’re walking from Liverpool to Leeds for SSAFA, the armed forces charity,” says Liam. ”We’ve raised about £2,000 so far. We’re just going to tell war stories to each other and rewrite our own legend. We enjoy reliving our younger days doing things like this. I’ve had one hip replaced, so I’m just trying to wear out the other one!”
We meet Tony feeding the geese, coots, moorhens and swans along the towpath. He says: “I’m just on my way down to the sea at Crosby on my bike and I’m feeding them on the way. I don’t use bread only peas, lentils and seeds that suit their digestive system better. I’ve always loved the water. Even though I’m a working class kid from Bootle, I put myself through university and moved to Miami. So any time I’m by water, I’m back there. And it makes me happy.” 19
Let’s Yoga!
Let’s celebrate As we mark our 10th anniversary in 2022, we’re planning to put on our biggest ever programme of activities to give people the chance to discover the joys of life by water for the first time. Tony Entwistle, our national events co-ordinator, explains more about the exciting ‘Let’s’ programme. “The key thing about our Let’s activities is that they are completely free,” says Tony as he outlines his plans for the year ahead. “So events like Let’s Fish! or Let’s Paddle! are open to absolutely everyone along the canals.
Let’s Birdwatch!
The idea of our Let’s events is to open up canals to anyone who would benefit from the physical or mental wellbeing you find by water. Especially for people in urban areas who might not have outside space to enjoy, our events are really easy to access for anyone who might not have tried to fish, paddleboard or canoe before, or who might think these things cost a lot of money. It doesn’t matter how old you are or where you come from, our waterways have something for everybody to enjoy.” As Tony outlines the wonderful ideas coming in from our local organisers in the regions, it 20
Let’s Walk!
Let’s Lego!
“ The key thing about our Let’s activities is that they are completely free.” Tony Entwistle, national events co-ordinator certainly sounds like there’s a busy spring and summer ahead. Whether it’s learning a new skill, meeting new people, getting active or mindful you won’t be short of inspiration.
Let’s Fish!
“There’s taster activities for those looking to take up walking or fishing; and canoeing and paddleboarding activities for people who want to get onto the water. In addition, there will be a host of boating festivals for people who love our traditional narrowboats as well as special events at our waterway museums too. Our free and hugely popular Let’s Fish! sessions are continuing to grow. And if you’d like to help raise money for our charity, there’s also a host of Let’s Fundraise! running, walking, paddling or challenge events to sign up for. If you like the peace of canals you could try Let’s Yoga! or Let’s Meditate! For nature lovers we’re planning to hold birdwatching, bat walks, pond dipping, bug hunting or tree spotting sessions too.
Let’s Paddle!
A new one for this year is Let’s Click! where you can learn photography skills by the canal. Let’s Lego! events for the kids are always a big draw too.” Best of all, as Tony explains, it’s all right on your doorstep: “From London to Wales to the Midlands and the North, our teams are putting on free Let’s activities near you. And they are all on our website. All you need to do is sign up and turn up for a great time out by water.”
Let’s Go It’s easy to find something to do, near you canalrivertrust.org.uk/events 21
Give canals your eyes and ears
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Our expert engineers, hydrologists, ecologists, heritage and wellbeing experts often take a scientific approach to their work. Now, thanks to our growing ‘citizen science’ programme, supporters and volunteers, like you, are helping us collect data to keep an even closer eye on canals across the country. A whole new bank of important information is building up, based on your observations and responses to our recent surveys. For instance, The Science of Scenic Beauty, run in partnership with the University of Warwick, asks you which canal scenes you find most appealing in our ‘Rate this Scene’ game. Sense in Nature asked people to share the sights, sounds and even smells you found on the towpath; and our King’s College collaboration Urban Mind looked at how happy people felt by water and examined how it added to people’s sense of wellbeing. The results of all three surveys, give you, the very people who use our canals on a regular basis, a stake in driving our future plans to improve waterways, restore wildlife and protect canal heritage.
feelings and observations from the towpath.”
“With every survey we’ve done, participation from our supporters has grown,” explains Lucie Unsworth, national youth and civil society manager. “From a few hundred participants in our Urban Mind survey to over 13,000 people helping us to rate over 700,000 images in our Rate this Scene survey. People shared over 10,000 of their own images with us, which shows how much people love their local canal scenery. It’s hugely encouraging that so many people want to #ActNowForCanals by giving up just a few minutes of their time to share their experiences,
A vast amount of data is currently being collated and analysed by us and our university scientist partners, so it will be some time before we can share full results. But some fascinating insights are starting to emerge, as Lucie explains: “In our Sense in Nature survey for instance, we’ve been surprised to see how important the sense of smell was to people by the
And as Lucie goes on to explain, this information is much needed: “Although we conduct regular surveys of our engineering, heritage and nature assets, with over 2,000 miles to look after, it’s simply not possible for all our colleagues and volunteers to keep an eye on every metre of towpath, all of the time. Things are always changing and we need to keep up to date. That’s why involving the millions of people who use our canals and rivers every year is so important. It gives us the chance to have eyes and ears everywhere. And gives people the chance to help improve their local canal, simply by telling us what they see when they’re out, walking the dog, or pottering about on the river.”
canal. Perhaps we’ve taken for granted how many people find the canal to be a much-needed breath of fresh air. These good smells were a key factor in significantly improving people’s mood. So, particularly in urban areas, that gives us all sorts of ideas about how plants and wildflowers could help people stay positive. It was also interesting in our Rate this Scene survey how much variety there was in the scenes that people liked the most. Some people went for greenery, others for dramatic sunsets, others the changing of seasons. Some people loved industrial heritage, others modern street art. It reinforces that canals need to be a rich tapestry for the wellbeing of all sorts of people.” So where does Lucie expect our ‘citizen science’ programme to go next? “We are delighted to have received support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery for this first phase of projects. Given the wide range of work we do, this valuable experience gained will certainly enable us to have many other ways we can engage with people from all walks of life to become citizen scientists and help make life better by water for everyone.”
#ActNowForCanals Take part in our latest citizen science surveys canalrivertrust.org.uk/actnow 23
An invitation to craft the future of canals Waterfront loves to introduce you to the custodians of our canals. We met up with Michelle Lund-Conlon, who recently joined us as a lock gate joinery apprentice. And this spring, we look forward to inviting Friends to meet more of the people shaping the future of canals, at a series of events run by our Gifts in Wills team. “I was a primary school teacher,” Michelle explains, “so this was a big career change. My dad and grandad were both very handy, but I’d never even picked up a saw until lockdown brought me home after years teaching and travelling abroad.
I took online and college courses in woodworking and completely fell in love. The chance to join the lock gate workshop here in Wakefield and help protect the future of our canal heritage was the only apprenticeship I wanted. Every gate we build is bespoke as they were all designed at different times by different people. It’s a privilege to learn the history behind each one. “I work with Gaz and Neil who’ve been here 30-40 years,” continues Michelle. “They’ve treated me very well as the first female in the workshop. I’m just one of the gang and I’m proud they chose me to learn their craft. I hope to pass their skills onto somebody else, one day.” Our charity is investing in young apprentices like Michelle today to protect canals long into the future. And a gift in your Will could help develop the next generation of young people who will preserve our heritage too. This spring we look forward to inviting Friends to hear from canal experts at iconic locations such as the Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire and our new fish pass on the River Severn in Worcester. If you’re interested in making a gift in your Will to protect our waterways, or in joining us at an event, please contact our legacy officer, Emily Ding to find out more at emily.ding@canalrivertrust.org.uk
“ It feels good that the sustainable oak gates we’re building now will be there for another 25 years. I wish I could put a plaque on each one to say ‘Michelle built that’.” Michelle Lund-Conlon
Visit
canalrivertrust.org.uk/giftsinwills
