The Cotswold Canals Trust is a British registered charity that aims to protect and restore the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames and Severn Canal. Formed in 1972, the organisation has a goal to restore navigability on the two waterways between Saul Junction and the River Thames. Since then, it has overseen restoration of the waterways, with many bridges, locks, and cuttings being rebuilt and reinstated.
History
The Stroudwater Canal Society was formed in 1972 by Michael Ayland, a canal enthusiast who lived near Saul Junction, the intersection of the Stroudwater Navigation and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. Ayland was opposed to the infilling of the Stroudwater Navigation, and after speaking to a Bristol Evening Post journalist he gathered significant support and offers of assistance from members of the public. The Company of Proprietors of the Stroudwater Navigation, the primary landowner of the waterway, denied a newspaper report that suggested the navigation would be restored to Stroud.
The society's first official meeting was held on 12 May 1972 at the Subscription Rooms in Stroud and in its infancy the society formalised its goals to also include the restoration of the Thames and Severn Canal to provide a navigable link between Saul Junction and Lechlade on the River Thames. On 16 April 1975, the organisation was incorporated as the Stroudwater, Thames and Severn Canal Trust and on 23 July it became a registered charity. The organisation began using the name "Cotswold Canals Trust" in 1990; at this point its aims were to preserve and promote recreational use of the canals, to seek to have the towpath defined as a public right of way, to promote the restoration of the waterways between Saul Junction and Hope Mill Lock (near Thrupp), to promote the restoration of the Thames and Severn Canal between the Thames and the Cotswold Water Park, and ultimately to restore the entirety of the canals between Saul Junction and the Thames. The Trust's current aims are similar, but also include focus on wildlife and landscape conservation as well as navigability and recreation. Their governing document – as submitted to the Charity Commission for England and Wales – covers the preservation and maintenance of the waterways; the promotion of the use of the navigations by the public; education of the history, use, and wildlife of the navigations; the provision of recreational and leisure facilities on the navigations; and the furtherment and enhancement of environmental aspects along the waterways.
In 2021, the charity was awarded the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service for "regenerating a canal corridor, engaging communities and reviving heritage and wildlife".
Operations
Restoration
After the canals' abandonment, roughly of the waterways were infilled. The Sapperton Tunnel was impassable, having suffered numerous roof falls, and both its ornate portals had fallen into dereliction. Early work by the Trust included the restoration of the tunnel's southern portal at Coates, which took place between 1976 and 1977. Restoration of the tunnel's north portal at Daneway was completed in 1996,
Much of the charity's early work focussed on work parties undertaking various tasks including digging silt and renovating copings at the lock chambers. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a number of locks and bridges were restored, including Blunder Lock on the Stroudwater Navigation and Cerney Wick Lock on the Thames and Severn Canal. Obstructions to the waterways' restoration also included the A38 and the A419 roads, which were built after the canals were abandoned. The M5 motorway also bisects the route of the Stroudwater Navigation; the waterway is planned to pass beneath the motorway using the same channel as the River Frome. When the A419 Cricklade bypass was built in 1997, the Trust was able to have an underpass built in prospect of a restored canal.
In 2001, British Waterways and The Waterways Trust released a report and feasibility study in which they stated that canal restoration brings social, economic, and environmental benefits, and British Waterways stated that "historic waterways in the Cotswolds, abandoned for half a century, will be restored back to full use". Following this, the Cotswold Canals Trust – as part of the "Cotswold Canals Partnership" along with British Waterways – began to develop plans to restore the waterways. Of the of infilled canal, so far approximately has been reinstated.