The 87-mile canal, which links London with the Bristol Channel, is over two centuries old and requires year-round maintenance work by the charity. Larger-scale repairs take place between November and March when canals are quieter to minimise the impact on navigation.
The repairs
This year's programme, which saw a £382,000 investment in the canal, has seen lock gates replaced at the iconic Caen Hill Lock Flight in Devizes on locks 33 and 40, handcrafted in our specialist workshops. Lock 52 at Wootton Rivers had substantial repairs made to the bottom gates and cill to provide more resilience for boaters crossing the highest point of the canal this summer.
Repairs have been made to the top lock gates at Crofton, while the bottom and top gates at Copse Lock and at Colthrop Lock have been repaired in Berkshire, where timber repairs were made to the bottom gates and grouting to the cills using divers.
Work is continuing at Sheffield Lock near Reading to replace wooden quoins, which will make it easier for boaters to use when navigating this part of the canal.
Protecting the canal
Rob Coles, our area operations manager for Kennet & Avon East, explained: "The repairs and maintenance we’ve carried out this winter are vital to protect the canal from the extreme weather events that are taking their toll on our historic network, and so we can continue to look after the canal beyond the two centuries it has already been in existence.
"Our programme of works keeps the canal open for navigation for boaters, benefits wildlife and improves it for the local communities who live and use the canal every day."
Our winter work programme
As part of our winter works, we hosted an open day at Caen Hill Locks in Devizes in February that was attended by over 400 people and offered the unique opportunity to go down into a lock chamber to discover the work required to maintain an important structure on the scheduled ancient monument.
In total, repairs were planned at 159 sites on the canal network across England and Wales this winter as part of our commitment to care for 2,000 miles of inland waterways.
