Descriptions
Update 21 August 2025, 3:41pm
Due to the continued warm, dry weather resulting in the extreme drought conditions we are experiencing, the closure from Lock 41 to Lock 71 will be extended to Lock 75 on the Trent & Mersey Canal on Thursday 28 August.
We are providing a week notice to allow our customers to adjust their plans and relocate as needed. We appreciate this is disappointing news and we do not take this decision lightly. Our local team have been managing the limited resources we have on a daily basis, however it has now come to the point where we are no longer able to provide water to the dry pounds, and we need to close off the remaining Middlewich locks due to reduced inflows.
To help you prepare, we strongly encourage all boaters to start making plans now. This includes:
- Emptying waste tanks
- Filling up water and fuel tanks
- Consider alternative methods of accessing water
- Stocking up on essential supplies
- Considering relocating your boat to areas with services
Navigation between Lock 71 and Lock 72 on the Trent & Mersey Canal, with access to the Middlewich Branch, will remain open to allow businesses within this pound to remain accessible to boating customers.
Our local team continue to carry our daily water management to ensure the stability of our infrastructure and the surrounding ecology, however without a sustained period of rainfall, the situation will likely continue.
Where resources allow, water will be sent down the flight, however we cannot promise water along these pounds and all customers who remain moored within this area should regularly check and slacken their mooring lines as required.
We would like to thank our customers for their continued support during these closures. We will continue to monitor the situation daily and will provide fortnightly updates, or sooner if conditions change. If you spot any leaks or have concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0303 040 4040 or via our Contact Us page.
Update 18 July 2025, 3:02pm
Following valuable feedback from our customers, we'd like to clarify location details about the upcoming stoppage. The closure will be in place from Lock 41 to Lock 71 only, both junctions connecting to the Macclesfield Canal and the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal remain open and are not affected by this closure. We're aware that the map displayed on our website was not entirely accurate, and we're sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
Original 11 July 2025, 12:11pm
This year, we've experienced one of the driest springs on record, consequently water availability across the region is significantly lower than in previous years. To help to protect increasingly limited water resources, preserve canal infrastructure and ecology and prolong the supply of water along the Trent & Mersey Canal, we will need to implement the following closures.
Starting Friday 25 July 2025, navigation will be closed from Lock 71, Middlewich to Lock 41, Hardingswood to help prolong the supply of water to the south of the canal.
We hope that this notice allows time for boaters to adjust their plans and relocate as needed. If we can offer any windows at all for passage, then we will advise accordingly. Where local water levels permit, cruising within the long pounds between lock flights may still be possible.
We will continue to monitor the situation daily and will provide fortnightly updates, or sooner if conditions change. Our priority remains to reopen the lock flights as soon as rainfall replenishes reservoirs to sufficient levels. However, despite the measures we are taking, should the situation not improve, further restrictions may be required to the south of the Trent & Mersey Canal.
If it rains enough to allow safe navigation, restrictions will be lifted immediately: this is likely to require sufficient and prolonged rain over several weeks rather than a sudden very heavy downpour.
We understand that this continues to be disappointing news, we thank you for your support in reducing water use across our network and reporting leaks or concerns via 0303 040 4040 or our Contact Us page.
