Here’s to future of Devizes canal gem (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Here’s to future of Devizes canal gem

10:31am Thursday 30th December 2010 in News

The opening of the Kennet and Avon Canal on December 28 1810 was celebrated with flags, bunting and a ball.

But, due to the way we celebrate Christmas today, the 200th anniversary was more muted.

The Caen Hill flight of locks, a massive feat of engineering at the time, was the last link in the chain of artificial waterways from the River Thames at Reading to the River Avon at Bristol.

It is now a scheduled ancient monument and draws tourists to Devizes in increasing numbers.

VIPs gathered at the lock flight on the anniversary to add their voices to the general congratulations that the waterway has survived, though at times only just, into the 21st century.

British Waterways chief executive Robin Evans said: “The Kennet and Avon Canal is a beautiful waterway, a real jewel in the crown of the nation’s working industrial heritage.

“I am pleased that in 2010, the canal’s bicentenary year, we have been able to secure the future of this much-loved waterway by agreeing with Government that British Waterways can leave state control and create a national trust for the waterways.”

Devizes MP Claire Perry agreed: “This wonderful waterway is a brilliant asset to the towns and countryside through which it passes. It’s a wildlife corridor, a leisure and business park and a working part of our industrial heritage that everyone can access and enjoy for free.”

In the 1950s and 1960s the canal came within a hair’s breadth of disappearing altogether.

A parliamentary bill to permanent close it was only defeated after a vociferous campaign launched by canal lovers, leading to the creation of the Kennet and Avon Canal Preservation Society, which is now enshrined in the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust.

Once British Waterways became involved in its renovation, its future was assured and the Queen came to Devizes on August 8 1990 to officially reopen it.