You might picture summer on canals as a leisurely walk with boats drifting past as you enjoy the sunshine. But behind the scenes, our teams are still hard at work caring for canals, even at their busiest.
Work that doesn’t stop navigation, such as towpath repairs, can be done throughout the summer
As summer unfolds, you’ll still find our teams hard at work, carefully carrying out essential repairs at the same time as keeping our canals open and accessible to our boaters and visitors. With your support, our teams will be as busy as ever, repairing bridges, towpaths, banksides and lock gates, even as holiday makers pass by. In fact, we complete nearly half of all our planned maintenance work in summer to keep our waterways open, safe and thriving.
In winter, during the quieter boater season, your gifts help us prioritise and schedule major work that would stop navigation, such as most lock gate replacements. But our work doesn’t stop when the sunshine returns. As the waterways become busier and nature bursts into life, your support remains just as important. As Dean Davis, head of our direct services team, explains:
“Just under half our budget goes into the summer, so actually the split is quite even. Just like in winter, our asset management team plan many years ahead and give us a list of priorities to fix in the warmer months that can still go ahead without holding up boats.”
That careful planning means even in the height of summer, work doesn’t slow, it simply adapts. In some places, like the twin locks on the Trent & Mersey Canal, teams can carry out major repairs while life on the water continues around them.
Lock repairs continue all summer round, especially on twin locks, where one lock can remain open while another is being repaired
Back in the 1830s many locks on this canal were built in pairs to keep the boats flowing up and down this busy trade route. Today, that means we can repair one lock while keeping the other open for passing traffic during the summer. Diglis Locks on the River Severn are another pair of twin locks, with major gate repair works planned for later this summer.
Of course, our towpaths are just as busy in summer as the canals themselves, so it’s vital to keep them open and working for our boating, walking, cycling and angling visitors too. That’s why this summer some remarkable towpath repairs are planned, like those on the Rochdale Canal.
Going way back in time to the early days of canals, almost all our towpaths were designed primarily for horses tugging boats along the canal. They tell a story of how people once worked the waterways, but what once was a practical route for horses, can present challenges for modern visitors with narrow crossings that can be more difficult to pass.
On the Rochdale Canal in Calderdale, the towpaths were also designed for another purpose. At seven key points along the canal our towpaths act as a shallow overflow weir, giving canal waters an escape route after heavy rains led them to rise. Horses might not have minded getting their hooves wet back then, but today's towpath users do. That’s why for many years, each of these weirs have been crossed by narrow planks just few inches wide.
Upgrades to these narrow bridge crossings over towpath weirs on the Rochdale Canal are planned for the summer
How people used the waterways continues to shape how they are cared for today. With the help of our carpentry apprentices, we’re planning to bring these crossings up to date, with much wider and safer passage for walkers to cross. Meanwhile, our young apprentice stonemasons will be repairing the weirs themselves.
We also need the warmer summer weather for much of the stonework we do on our bridges. The traditional lime mortar we use to rebuild or repoint crumbling 250-year-old stone bridges often needs higher temperatures to set hard.
That’s why last summer we took the opportunity to almost completely rebuild Gittens Bridge on the Montgomery Canal. This year, a whole host of bridge repairs are planned, including on several of the historic swing bridges passing over the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.
The fresh brickwork on Gittens Bridge on the Montgomery Canal uses lime mortar and bricks that exactly match the originals
As Dean and his team observe, it’s going to be a busy summer, but just as in winter, we need to keep an eye on the changing weather and climate. “Drought can be as much of a problem in the warmer months as floods are in the wet,” says Dean.
“Last summer, when many canals were short of water, it caused our teams real problems getting materials to the site, as wherever possible, we bring them in by boat. Periods of drought can also exacerbate cracks or leaks in the canal bed, causing unexpected emergencies, which can divert time, money, and people power away from planned works.”
Our work boats are vital for carrying materials or clearing vegetation in summer, but low water can limit their movements
While summer might feel like a time to slow down, for the teams who care for our canals, it’s one of the most carefully managed seasons of the year. It’s a time when skill, planning and dedication come together to keep everything flowing. So, while you’re enjoying the calm of a summer’s day by the water, remember there’s a whole world of work happening just out of sight, helping keep these special places open, alive and thriving for everyone.
