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In 1973 the Droitwich Canal Trust was setup with the object of restoring navigation to the town. This was done with with help from IWA West Midlands region, Worcester County Council and Droitwich Town Development Committee and in October the same year 500 volunteers took part in a big dig (see Photograph).
IWA Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) strongly supported the scheme from the outset, and many IWA leading figures were members of the Trust, including Mike West and Ken Goodwin, both for very many years. David Stevenson was a trustee and Mike West was the Trust's longest serving treasuer. IWA financed (from the Pitts legacy) and WRG executed rebuilding of the locks on the Junction Canal. However, the Trust suffered from a lack of a substantial local membership and local political infighting.
In March 2003 the Inland Waterways Association announced that the winner of The Kenneth Goodwin Trophy for 2002 was the Droitwich Canals Trust. The Droitwich Canals Trust had, with the help of a grant from IWA and a series of weeklong and weekend Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) work parties, restored Hanbury Locks and, as a result, for the first time in 60 years, a boat was navigated down the three locks from the junction with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. This flight of locks was one of the last flights of narrow locks to be built on the UK's Midlands connected waterways during the Victorian era.
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