The restoration of much of Britain’s vast canal network has been a notable and uplifting success story. Originally saved in the 1960s from Beeching-style closures by Labour’s transport secretary, Barbara Castle, many of these formerly working and polluted waterways have become modern urban oases.
Otters, kingfishers and dragonflies can be glimpsed along the 100 miles or so of Birmingham’s canals. In Manchester, barge users and walkers can trace the origins of the Industrial Revolution along intersecting routes that crisscross the city. Across the country, canalside regeneration has transformed urban landscapes, partly enabled by the thousands of unpaid volunteers who rescued abandoned channels from dereliction and paved the way for Castle’s vision of “leisureways” to become a reality.
