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The Cotswold Canals consist of the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames & Severn Canal. The Cotswold Canals Trust has campaigned for 30 years to restore these canals and the £82million project to fully restore these canals is now backed by British Waterways, the South West Regional Development Agency, the Environment Agency and all the local authorities along the whole route. Various sections of the canal have been restored to full navigation, including some of the flight of locks at Eastington, and a recent offer of a £11.3m of Heritage Lottery Grant coupled with matched contributions from other sources, will enable the restoration of 6 additional miles of canal between Stonehouse and Brimscombe Port within the next four years.
In 1952 the Stroudwater Navigation company called a public meeting to announce that they intended to abandon the canal.
An Act was passed in 1954 ending navigation on the Stroudwater Canal.
The decline in the state of the canal between 1950 and 1956 is illustated by these two photos of the locks, which were published in IWA Bulletin 54 in May 1957.
Working parties started work in 1972 on the Stroudwater and Thames & Severn canals following the formation of the Stroudwater Canal Society.
In 1979 restoration work continued on the Cotswold Canals.
A Bid was made to the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2003 for a grant towards the first phase of restoration of the Cotswold Canals.
In 2005 the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) has awarded a grant of £15,000 to the Cotswold Canals Trust towards the reconstruction of Pike Bridge, located at Eastington on the Stroudwater Navigation.
The cost of rebuilding Pike Bridge is about £350,000. Just over £227,000 has been raised already through contributions from the Countryside Agency Aggregate Levy sustainability Fund Grant scheme, Gloucestershire County Council and Stroud District Council.
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