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(Navigation mostly owned by the Company of Proprietors of the Stroudwater Navigation)
In the 1950s, having escaped nationalisation, its owners - the original company of proprietors who built it - allowed the Stroudwater Navigation to fall derelict. Stroudwater, Thames & Severn Canal Trust (now renamed as Cotswold Canals Trust) later persuaded the Company that the Navigation should be restored, along with the Thames & Severn Canal (see below). Serious restoration work on the Navigation between Stroud and the M5 started in the early 1980s with a series of job creation schemes, supported by local volunteers, and was followed up through the early 1990s with more volunteer work, including support from WRG.
In 2006, the Heritage Lottery Fund gave approval for a £11.3 million grant towards the restoration of the Cotswold Canals, supported by funding from South West Regional Development Agencies, local authorities, BW and Cotswold Canals Trust. The bid for the grant was made by BW on behalf of the Cotswold Canals Partnership, a body comprising the local authorities along the route of the canal, The Waterways Trust, BW, IWA, Cotswold Canals Trust, the EA and other regional bodies. The funding package will enable restoration of the six-mile waterways from The Ocean at Stonehouse on the Stroudwater Navigation in the west to Brimscombe Port on the Thames & Severn Canal east of Stroud. The partnership is also working to ensure the protection of the historic structures of the waterways between Stonehouse and Saul Junction, open a 10-mile multi-user trail and prepare the way for connecting the restored phase one section with the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.
The Cotswold Canals Partnership has also passed the preliminary stages for a major grant from the Big Lottery Fund, which would enable restoration of the remainder of the Stroudwater Navigation through to the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal at Saul Junction. £250,000 of funding is being provided to enable the completion of further studies so that a full bid can be lodged in May 2007.
