We're carrying out a programme of major maintenance and preservation works on Leicestershire’s waterways to help keep the county’s historic canal network navigable, open and alive.
The works
The works, part of an extensive £1.3m programme of repairs and restoration across the East Midlands region, is seeing giant lock gates replaced at several locks on the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal.
Works are taking place at Gas Pipe Lock and Pywells Lock, near Fleckney, and Gees Lock, near Glen Parva. our specialist teams are working to replace and repair the lock gates, which have reached the end of their 25-year lives. The teams are also working to restore brickwork within the locks, ensuring they remain watertight and navigable for boats as well as helping to protect the historic structures from the increasing impacts of flooding and drought.
The Gees Lock project has been made possible thanks to funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. This fantastic support is enabling the lock gates to be removed and replaced with new ones. Each lock gate is individually designed and hand-built at one of the charity’s two specialist workshops, by skilled craftspeople using traditional techniques.
Keeping our network open
Linny Beaumont, our regional director for East Midlands, said: “Winter is the time of year when our skilled in-house construction teams are out delivering the larger maintenance and engineering projects that are essential to keeping our 250-year-old canal network open and alive.
“Leicestershire’s canals are centuries-old working heritage and, with rising costs, climate pressures and more extreme weather events, the challenge of keeping them in good condition for navigation has never been greater.
“While millions of people use and visit the canals every week, perhaps they don’t stop to think about what it takes to look after them – or what we would lose if they were gone. Our canals cannot take care of themselves - keeping the nation’s canals open and safe requires millions of pounds. And the reality is, we cannot keep them alive without the support of boaters, our volunteers, supporters, and the wider public.”
The works in Leicestershire form just part of our vast, multi-million-pound endeavour to care for the nation’s 250-year-old man-made canal network. This winter’s essential works will span 45 canals and rivers nationwide, including 137 separate projects at more than 100 locks, 14 bridges, two tunnels and a host of embankments, sluices, culverts and canal walls. The work, which spans the length and breadth of the country, takes place between November and March when there is less boating traffic.
