These are just a few of over 60 volunteers from Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) and the Kent & East Sussex Canal Restoration Group (KESCRG) who have been getting to the bottom of things at Inglesham Lock on the Cotswold Canals.
An appeal launched by the Inland Waterways Association at the end of 2010 raised more than £100,000 towards restoring the lock to create a gateway to the Cotswold Canals which will one day link the Thames right through to the Severn – and after a great deal of planning and the installation of a temporary dam by contractors, on 19 July the volunteers could finally start work in the lock. They spent three weeks of summer canal camps clearing silt from the chamber, repairing the stop plank grooves and installing new stop planks to hold back the waters of the Thames. Next, a team of experienced volunteers will undertake a full survey of the chamber, assessing structural damage to aid planning for major restoration work in 2015.
