The new canal cut at Capel Mill viaduct

I was very pleased to hear that Sarah Lunnon, the Green Party candidate and sitting councillor was re-elected as our Stroud representative on Gloucestershire County Council yesterday.

I had a very long meeting with the Town Clerk today to plan a strategy for the next stages of works related to Lansdown Hall, which is the town council's responsibility. Our fund raising plans have been finalised and we now need to make sure all the legal agreements that are required between four different parties are in place and watertight.

Talking of watertight, I made my way home at about 2pm by walking along the canal from Wallbridge Lock at the centre of town, eastwards towards Bowbridge where the first phase of the canal regeneration will finish hopefully by the end of this year. The biggest engineering works in this £14 million project have been the creation of this new canal cut at Capel's Mill railway viaduct which are nearing completion. The original canal was built beside the River Frome, and was linked by a long tunnel under the Cotswold hills at Sapperton, to the River Thames. It was finally closed by the 1950s and in various places the actual canal was filled in, and sometimes built upon. Where the canal ran under this brick-built railway viaduct, a 1970s bypass to the south of the Stroud was built.

To get the canal re-opened meant that a 300 metre section of new canal had to be built to take the canal under a different archway, which has required building it on very unstable land. Massive concrete piles have been driven into the ground, which you can see on the far side of the arches. A concrete walled 'cut', the technical name for a canal trench, had to be constructed to keep the canal from dropping into the river which is about thirty feet below it at this point. The river flows under a separate arch. Joining the old canal to the concrete section needed a traditional canal cut with strong banks and a waterproof bottom. This would have been made by shipping in massive amounts of a particular type of clay and 'puddling' it to ensure no points of leakage, which was all done by workmen when the canal was built in about 1790.

Today the puddling is being done by two men and a digger. Here the clay has been dumped on the floor of the cut, and the digger driver is lifting it onto the inner side of the curve of the canal, and then pushing it hard against the ground's angled surface, constantly wetting it and then smoothing it from top to bottom, to a pre-determined depth. The assistant checks the depth every couple of feet to ensure it will be thick enough to take the weight of water, and wont be damaged by any impact by boats.

Woodpeckers and I are looking forward to next Friday when Stroud District Council, who are coordinating all this work, are organising an Open Day for this section of the canal. The public is encouraged to come and walk along the new bed of the cut and admire the works, before it is then flooded for ever more! We both think it looks a rather ambitious schedule, but to be fair to the contractors they have delivered all the other extensive works on time up till now. By next year boats should be able to navigate from Bowbridge lock dow about five miles to near the town of Stonehouse. all that will then be needed is a lot more money to link that section under the M5 motorway which was built right on the old canal, and onto the Sharpness Canal at Saul Junction. Going the other way is looking more promising, but I don't think it will be achieved in my lifetime, although the commitment is there.

It would be a brilliant achievement to re-connect the Thames and Severn rivers, and there would be a huge positive impact from tourism for the local area, and a wonderful journey for the tourists to come. The canal previously only served the vital 19th century industrial needs of the area. There is a chance that the waterway will be utilised as a conduit for transporting river water from Wales, along the River Severn and thence up to the River Thames and the south-east of England, which is desperate for sources of fresh water. This is being treated as a very serious possibility, to avoid having to drown huge areas of farmland in Oxfordshire, and possibly other areas. You may well hear more about it in the next year or two. Fingers are crossed that they can save money, and the environment, by using this solution, which would fund the re-opening of the canal and supply needed water. Positive solutions all round I say.

Check the location map to see exactly where this is.