Restoration

One of IWA's principal aims is to advocate the restoration of derelict inland waterways in the British Isles.

Why do the canals need restoring?

For sixty years, from the late 18th century onwards, Britain's inland waterways system expanded to link the country's rivers, ports, cities and industrial heartlands. Boats supplied the new factories with raw materials and carried away their finished products.

Then, with the beginning of the Railway Age, the days of roaring prosperity for the waterways were quickly replaced by a continuous decline of fortunes. Finance was diverted to build railways, some railway companies even bought up canals with the intent of neglecting them and strangling the competition.

Those canals that survived the onslaught did so by cutting their tolls to the minimum; this meant there was little money avaliable to enlarge or improve the waterways, and they slipped further behind the railways.

By the Twentieth Century the decline was accelerating, some waterways were abandoned and disappeared, and can now only be traced by ancient maps. Others, ignored or sometimes deliberately sabotaged by various authorities that had been entrusted with their care, lingered on in a sort of twilight existence, mouldering gently, carrying only a small percentage of the traffic they transported in their heyday.

Largely unimproved since the 1830s, the waterways seemed to have little hope of servicing the nation's transport needs......

Click below to learn about:

IWA Grants for Restoration

For details on how to apply for a grant from IWA's National Waterway Restoration Fund       click here

Restoration Handbooks

Comprehensive reference material for both the practical and technical elements of successful waterway restoration.