After 30 years dedicated to canals, Dean Davies, head of direct services, reflects on their past, present and future. Follow the challenges, achievements and memories that have shaped his amazing career.
Dean may already be a familiar face to many of our Friends and supporters, particularly if you joined his recent online talk, Winter Warriors: The Hidden Story of the Teams Battling to Keep Canals Open. During the session, Dean shared the stories of the dedicated teams and experts who work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep our canals operational through some of the toughest weather conditions of the year.
Yet next spring, once his final winter works programme is complete, Dean will be retiring after three decades of dedicated service to our waterways. While retirement is well deserved, his departure will mark the end of an era for many colleagues, volunteers and supporters who have worked alongside him over the years.
Dean inspects a fully drained Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
“It will be a huge wrench”, says Dean. “Since day one, canals have felt like family - the people you work with, the faces you meet on the towpath, and the incredible Friends and supporters who back us all the way.
It all began in the mid-90s when I spotted a job for British Waterways in my local paper. At the time, I knew nothing about canals or heritage conservation. Coming from a world of modern civil engineering, stepping onto the waterways was like chalk and cheese. But something about it appealed to me, and I have always loved my time working on this amazing canal network.
I soon found myself examining structures that were hundreds of years old. I remember looking at them early on and thinking, ‘Oh my God, it’s got a crack. It’s falling over. We need to do something about that.’ But the old hands who had spent their lives on the water would smile and say, ‘That’s how canals are. It’s not as bad as you imagine.’ They were right. My fellow engineers were incredibly generous, advising me and helping me adapt to an entirely different approach to construction and heritage conservation.
On canals, you quickly learn that a large part of the job is prioritisation. We manage thousands of engineering structures across a vast 2,000-mile network, and almost everything is centuries old. Some parts are naturally in better condition than others, and budgets are always limited.
Before long, I was out inspecting the assets on my own patch - figuring out what needed urgent attention, putting vital repair programmes together, weighing up risk assessments, and supporting the delivery of those work priorities. That’s essentially what my team and I do now, each day across the entire network. It is what makes me happy. I'm simply a logical, practical person who loves solving building and construction problems.
I’ve worked on almost every aspect of canal life, including as a waterway manager. Up to 2014, I looked after the entire West Midlands, learning the job at Fradley Junction, where the Coventry and Trent & Mersey canals meet. Back then, waterway managers were responsible for everything on their patch. Your teams managed water levels, oversaw lock gate replacements, protected banks and looked after boaters. Your days were consumed by licensing, managing moorings, estate management, heritage conservation and ecology.
Dean features in the Burton Mail in his younger days
But there was still an attitude at British Waterways of ‘we know best, leave waterways to us.’ I never liked that, because canals belong to everybody. I always think back to my time at Fradley with pride, because we challenged the prevailing attitudes.
On my first day, the gate to the office was locked with a sign that said, ‘No Access for the Public’. I thought, ‘This is mad!’ 150,000 people were visiting that site every year. And we were turning them away.
That’s why, over the next three years, the team and I opened the site to everyone. We built a walking route around the reservoirs and pools, opened a café and added public toilets and showers. We improved the moorings for boaters and set up a car park. We just made people feel welcome. And then they came along in even bigger numbers than ever, making it one of the most popular places to visit in the region. For me, it’s simply about seeing the opportunity and having some vision. Making the network more open to the public is the biggest change I’ve seen in all my time on canals, especially now that we’re run as a charity.
I love the open days we run because they give you a chance to listen to people, get feedback and explain what you do. When you take someone down to the bottom of a lock for the first time and see the amazement in their faces, it fills your soul with joy. When our Friends, supporters or boating customers thank you for what you do, you come home skipping! I quickly learned that what we in the Trust see as the mundane everyday tasks, others see as absolutely fascinating. That’s made me appreciate my time at the Trust even more.
Still, times have become tougher. Our charity has become much leaner as costs have risen, but we’re also much more efficient. There are fewer managers at the top and many more volunteers on the ground. And I’m incredibly proud that we now have a proper apprentice programme in place. Six or seven apprentices now join every year to learn heritage skills like stonemasonry, bricklaying, lock gate fitting, or mechanical & electrical skills to help manage our workboat fleet. In doing so they’re helping preserve essential skills that will look after our canals well into the future.
Importantly, I’m glad to leave canals in better condition than I found them. When I became a national construction manager in 2014, I could see the cake wasn’t being sliced fairly between regions and everything felt very hand-to-mouth. We now understand our pinch points and target investment where it is needed most. We also have five-year programmes for lock gate replacement, asset improvement and dredging, so it’s much more sustainable. Overall, across our 2,000 miles of canals, I believe we are in a much better, more equitable place, and I’m genuinely optimistic about the future.
Looking ahead, I'm encouraged by the direction the Trust is taking. Our new Chief Executive has a clear vision. He understands the issues and is single-mindedly pulling a strategy together to create a more sustainable future for the network. You’ll see us be even more innovative and embrace new ways of doing things, without losing the skills we already have. And I’m optimistic you’ll see us attract even more investment from the outside world.
It does make me wonder if I’m retiring too soon. But I know it’s time for others to take up the reins. I still live on the canal at Fradley, so I will never be far away. I’ve thought about coming back to volunteer or maybe just try to walk all 2,000 miles, because I love the peace and time to reflect that canals give you. It would be wonderful to walk back over my old stomping grounds and remember the amazing people and places I’ve helped to care for.”
