Victor: Breaches not so rare

ON THE appeal page for cash to help finance the breach at Dutton Hollow on the Trent & Mersey Canal is the statement—'After all canal breaches are extremely rare'.

But this is not the case at all, in fact the opposite is true, as they are quite common, as I shall most certainly tell.

Two on Llangollen

I can by no means remember them all over the past few years, but I do remember two on the Llangollen, both hastily repaired as the canal provides water for Hurleston Reservoir, and so pipes had to be quickly installed to keep it flowing.

A friend had planned a trip across the Ribble a while ago, but couldn't make it as there was a breach on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, at Parbold.  And it was only a couple of years ago that the Caldon Canal (pictured) breached towards its terminus on the Leek Branch. One I well remember as we had moored just beyond it a few months earlier.

Rochdale Canal

Then there was the breach at Irk Aqueduct on the Rochdale Canal, that put a stop to boating, and another canal in Yorkshire, the Huddersfield Narrow is rather famous for them, though not usually of such magnitude owing to its very short pounds.

But the Mon & Brec (pictured) had two rather dramatic breaches, with one if I remember correctly, used as an excuse for British Waterways to withdraw its funding from the Cotswold Canals project.

The Gloucester & Sharpness breached in recent years and there was another major one on the Shropshire Union Canal at Shebdon Bridge, that put the waterway out of action, as well as the problems with Shelmore Embankment.

Causes

Their causes vary, though blocked culverts are often to blame, and no few have been caused by either badgers or water voles, that the then British Waterways actually introduce—which reminds me that it was burrowing water voles that caused the re-opened Buxworth Basin on the Peak Forest Canal to be hastily closed as the introduced water voles had been rather busy on the embankment, causing yet another breach.

And just remembered—there was one not so long ago on the Stourbridge Canal.  Here's a picture.

Of course, the withdrawal of lengthmen, keeping a very watchful eye on their various lengths, and controlling excess water, I feel had a lot to do with the latest breach on the Trent & Mersey.

So that's a dozen—not so rare, eh?

Victor Swift