76 February 2017 www.waterwaysworld.com

Ten more years to Welshpool?A big lottery award has just given renewed vigour to restoration of the beautiful Montgomery Canal. Andrew Denny looks to the future…

In the summer of 2008, Waterways World ran a feature by Alan Wilding headlined ‘Ten years to Welshpool?’ Well, it’s nine years on, and it’s time to take stock…

The decade before 2008 had been a time of tremendous optimism for the Shropshire Union

Canal Society, the driver of the restoration. Starting with the reopening of the first of Frankton Locks in 1987, by 1995 the whole flight and 4 miles of canal had been reinstated to Queen’s Wharf. This was followed in 2003 by another 3 miles to Maesbury and Gronwen Wharf.

Further restoration to Redwith Bridge was taking place by the time the article appeared in print. And the next quarter-mile onwards from Redwith Bridge had already begun when the Inland Waterways Association’s 2008 Campaign Festival was held at Maesbury.

But in recent years progress has slowed. The quarter-mile beyond Redwith Bridge – begun with such enthusiasm – was opened in 2014 but immediately closed again when it appeared to be leaking. The source of the leak is yet to be determined, but until the next stage is completed there’s little pressure to find out.

Lottery windfallBut now – once again – the restorers have rolled out the ‘Ten years to Welshpool’ message. And new momentum has come thanks to Heritage Lottery Fund money.

Above: Carreghofa locks – beautifully restored, but still no boats.

Right: Trailboats at Welshpool Wharf. The ‘ten-year vision’ could see conventional boats there too.

60 August 2008 Waterways World

‘Montgomery Canal . . . now being restored.’ So for many years proclaimed a modest little sign, sticking out of a hedge behind a reedy basin on the Llangollen Canal. It gave the thousands en route to the great Welsh waterway Mecca a tantalising dream of yet another possible cruising treat across the border. That sign disappeared many years ago but, although much has been achieved over the past forty years, its basic message still applies.

The Inland Waterways Association’s decision to stage its 2008 National Campaign Rally on this long-running project is giving everyone a chance to remember some of the steps along the way and to celebrate the massive amount of restoration achieved to date. Perhaps more importantly, it should help everyone appreciate exactly what else still has to be done to complete this unique cross-border waterway for future generations. Canal buffs will happily relate the complicated and piecemeal building of the original canal but suffi ce for most, who are new to the story, to learn that its commercial carrying days effectively ended

in early 1936 when part of its banks gave way near its north Shropshire junction with the Llangollen Canal. Gradual decay, dereliction and offi cial abandonment followed.

The legendary Welshpool digAn ill-conceived proposal to turn its defunct channel though Welshpool into a dual carriage bypass in the late 1960s was always going to be diffi cult, with only a 7ft wide canal bed available, but the legendary Welshpool Dig ensured the demise of that idea. Nearly 200 volunteers from across the UK spent a weekend making the 1½ mile waterway usable, thus initiating its long-running restoration and present-day use as a superb leisure facility for local people and tourists. Endless problems, delays and lack of fi nance have not daunted enthusiasts from the Inland Waterways Association and Shropshire Union Canal Society. During the past 40 years, many bits of the restoration jigsaw have clicked back into usable condition although some remain isolated by lowered road crossings.

10 years toWelshpool?

Boaters are fl ocking to the Montgomery Canal this summer

for a festival and IWA rally. But when will this beautiful canal fi nally be restored?

ALAN WILDING takes a look

above

The horse-drawn holiday boat Siân locking

down at Berriew.

left

Sign at Frankton Junction during

the early days of restoration.

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www.waterwaysworld.com February 2017 77

Restoration REPORT

In October, HLF announced a grant of £2.53m to the Montgomery Canal Partnership, a confederation of 14 waterway organisations, councils, government bodies and charities. One of the largest awards made to a canal in some years, it raises to £4.2m the amount available for the next stage of restoration.

Wildlife havens The Montgomery’s closure in 1936 and its official abandonment in 1944 might have been a disaster for navigation, but it created a new wildlife haven. In recent years much of the canal has become a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and the entire Welsh length, from Llanymynech, through Welshpool to Newtown, is now an EU Special Area of Conservation.

The immediate beneficiary of the latest HLF grant will be the nature reserves beside Aston Locks further north. Built by volunteers in the 1990s, these small reserves were the product of an agreement hammered out between boating and nature-loving groups during the first period of restoration in the 1990s. This allowed only 2,500 ‘boat movements’ a year, and equates to between four and eight boats on the canal at any one time – or around one per mile. The result is a strict booking system at Frankton Locks, rationing the numbers that can come.

Expanding the Aston nature reserves will double this to 5,000 a year. Although this part of the money won’t lengthen the channel, it will have a major impact on boat traffic, and bring pressure to continue restoration.

Ecologists say the expanded Aston nature reserves will be their last territorial demand in Shropshire. Subject, of course, to not finding any more great crested newts!

Extending the channelA further part of the money will finance real restoration, extending the channel for half a mile through to Crickheath Wharf. The restored winding hole there will make another big difference. Longer boats that have been unable to go past the previous winding hole at Gronwen Wharf will now be able to turn at Crickheath, thus extending the navigable length by about 1½ miles. This HLF work is expected to be completed by 2021.

The remaining portion of the new funds will enable some restoration on the Welsh section, south of Llanymynech

Left top: Near Llanymynech, an ideal candidate for a lift-bridge.

Left: The towpath on an uncleared section at Crickheath. Underlying peat means the ground is extremely uneven.

A finely restored footbridge near Clopton’s Wharf.

Aston

Frankton

Carreghofa

Burgedin

Berriew Efail Fach Bridge

Brithdir

Belan

Freestone

Brynderwen

Dry section

‘Prince of Wales’ section

Navigable to Redwith

Navigable by portable boats

Navigable by portable boats

Welshpool

Newtown

Maesbury

Llanymynech Crickheath

Redwith

Arddleen

Pool Quay

0 5 10 miles

– dropped bridge

Carregofa Locks have been superbly

restored, despite the canal here

being unnavigable.