@@grahamcarter8499 have a look in my community section, it flooded with the rain last week, you can see what it’ll look like. It’s very exciting times for the WBCT, this is the start of a very decent stretch of water
@@SLOWLYdoesit1 compared to years ago when they’d have dug it caring little for anything or anyone in its path. Now it takes longer to decide a route than it took them to survey and build them with primitive equipment
It all looks very promising, with some smart planning for re-routing the canal around Swindon - which is a major and presumably, very costly undertaking. Thanks for the update.
I remember doing a weekend on this canal with London WRG back around 1988. Even brought my own chainsaw... Sadly the work was on one of the sections which ultimately, will not form part of the restored navigation.
@@andrewhotston983 house prices increase when they are canalside, it more than pays for itself. Although they make an incredible amount of money anyway
There is not much to praise in Birmingham but the canal system is one feature built about 200 years ago. A lot more could be done to maximise the asset with some imagination.
Many towns and cities across the uk under utilise the canal. It’s just starting to be seen as an asset rather than a dirty ditch. Some councillors are still a little older and set in their ways though!
@@eamonquinn5188 there is still a planned route to take the north wilts canal through, that used to come off where Debenhams was and go under the railway along the underpass near to the old oasis pool. There’s a few plans around but the thought is the new labour leadership in the town may be more keen to find a way to bring the canal though to canal walk in the town centre
Whoever runs Swindon is going to regret not routing this through the town centre. Would have been an excellent improvement to a pretty awful urban landscape. Silly.
@@chairmakerPete it would be a game changer for the town, I spent quite a lot of time in the town as a kid, then worked there in my late teens and it’s sad to see what it’s like now.
@@traceyb3752 the clay is recycled from site, as explained in the video they clear a section of 15-20m then as they start to clear the next section they use that clay to puddle the bit they just cleared. In wiltshire we have a lot of clay in our soil!
Isn't it all a "glorified pond" unless it's used for something? With the switch to steel recycling with Arc Furnaces, and the future likely being more recycling, and hopefully some returning domestic industry, it'd be nice to think we could put scrap and primary commodity on the canals. It'd have to be automated to some degree - that kind of work wouldn't pay modern rent!
@@trs4u yep, exactly what I keep saying, it’s 7x more fuel efficient to run goods via canal than it is roads, and 4x more than rail. It’s a win win, better for the environment and brings income to the canal
I was a Labour Councillor in Stroud and when we took over the Stroud Water project from the previous administration we commissioned a survey into the financial benefit of restoring what is still a pond. As I remember along with heritage lottery we spent about £20m, the financial benifit was £126m. It came mainly from canal side development & canal side business, and that's before a single barge was floated. In the near term it will be connected to the network and income will come from the boats using it. The local economy is boosted by boat owners spending money, cycle hire along the tow path, pubs and resteraunts along the tow path, maintainance spend with local engineering firms and less easy to quantify is the health and well-being impact on local residents. To give them credit the Conservatives started the project, but they tended to be fixated on cost. Under Labour and now the Greens the project continues and the focus has switched to the wider benifit. I honestly don't think commercial traffic will ever use cannals much again but in today's different economic circumstances it isn't required for cannals to have a future.
Yes but cattle were widely used where available. They’d run them up and down until it was compact. I’ve been on another canal this weekend where they had a sheep’s foot roller working, it’s not quite puddling but building the height of the land up ready for the canal which should come soon
It will also be good when the Wichelstowe section gets unblocked as well. The owner seems to have done everything he can, its SBC that is holding up resolving it.
There was a chain across the water under the footbridge just north of Waitrose, I'm not sure how far Dragonfly can go but is that really still there if it's running?
@@sIightIybored it’s not running that end at the moment, there’s a dispute with the landowner and the council so he’s closed it off, stuffs happening behind the scenes all the time to resolve the issue. The dispute doesn’t involve the trust, they’ve always had a very good relationship.
@@CourtAboveTheCut From the letters posted previously on the local noticeboard by the owner, the dispute is over the legal boundaries when the property was first purchased by his father and SBC are igoring all requests to share them. SBCs refusal to co-operate is a big indicator who may be at fault.
@@TheMdw59 it’s a covenant on the original documents that dated to the 70s the son of the original owner is disputing it. I know of behind the scenes stuff but I can’t really say more as I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say publicly. Hopefully it’s all on its way to being sorted
@@mijzzzz the swindon section? You can’t walk down the under construction but but if you park somewhere near the pin I add you can walk down to the bridge that’s boarded up
@@mijzzzz to walk the last section I walk down you can park in the Waitrose car park maps.app.goo.gl/xQfeSxRBoxudxk4q6?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy
@@mijzzzz we park in there regularly when we go for a walk with the kids, we usually use the cafe and toilets in waitrose and then have a walk. We have never had a ticket
The various elements of what you are talking about would have been easier to understand if you had used drone footage accompanied by commentary at each point. It's a lot of information to take onboard without being able to see what's what in sequence. Still photography is nice, but it's nigh on impossible to get a holistic understanding of the overall project in the space of just one video.
@CourtAboveTheCut Fair enough. So strange that you had this reaction. Joe Tegtmeyer in the USA uses that format to cover Tesla's Giga Austin facility, its lithium production plant, SpaceX, and the Boring Company. He has a HUGE following of his channel.
@@pinkelephants1421 I think it’s the subject, I follow stadium builds and all the guys do it on there. Most of my audience is towards retirement age and although the drone stuff is liked the full videos don’t go down well. I used to make 2 videos, a drone only video and a walking and talking video, the drone videos always had low views. I now only do them for narrowboat members only, no overlays etc just some music and all my shots.
@@CourtAboveTheCut Yeah, demographics can be the difference between successful content and death by trying too hard. Best of luck with your channel in the future.
yes great video but the commentary could have been a lot better, your speaking so fast just cant take in what your saying! shame. But, well done all those who are involved in the works, hope to be able to catch the progress with a commentary that we can follow.
@@t1n4444 as it stands it’ll be managed by the trust, CRT aren’t really taking on new canals apart from where they own the line (anything abandoned in the 30s onwards generally although mostly stuff in the 60s. They are still managed by trusts. IF for some reason the cash situation changes for CRT where tax payers money is used then you need to look at the bigger picture. Currently £54 Million I think is the figure given from the tax payer, that’s dropping, BUT the canal network is worth £6.1 billion to the local economy, health and well being and savings tk the NHS. I can’t remember the financial only value but it’s somewhere around £1.3-£1.8 billion a year so investment is tiny compared to earnings.
Not gonna lie but down south doesnt need anything... not one fucking thing... up north needs a lot of work, especially restoration of canals ... our environment up here is declining dramatically, disgusting how the north gets absolutly nothing... manchester needs help too on our waterways especially ashton canal, peak forest canal... and also our rivers medlock goyt etherow and tame
Excellent video. Great stuff history in the making
@@grahamcarter8499 have a look in my community section, it flooded with the rain last week, you can see what it’ll look like. It’s very exciting times for the WBCT, this is the start of a very decent stretch of water
Insane how much work is involved- it isn’t digging a ditch!
@@SLOWLYdoesit1 compared to years ago when they’d have dug it caring little for anything or anyone in its path. Now it takes longer to decide a route than it took them to survey and build them with primitive equipment
And they did it by hand back then!
@@surters picks and shovels, nothing fancy back then!
We love the canal and feel very excited at the progress being made. Well done to everyone concerned.
They are doing a great job, it’s great for me as it’s my local canal, it’s going to be fun covering it
How much easier with modern machines than pick, shovel and barrow. Bless those amazing navvies!
@@JamieW-o7b easier to dig but much harder to get permission to dig!
@@CourtAboveTheCut Good point! The only grubby hands these days are the local authority scroungers!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for your support
It all looks very promising, with some smart planning for re-routing the canal around Swindon - which is a major and presumably, very costly undertaking. Thanks for the update.
@@malcolmrichardson3881 years and years of hope and planning
Good informative video
@@arthurhewer3308 thank you
I remember doing a weekend on this canal with London WRG back around 1988.
Even brought my own chainsaw...
Sadly the work was on one of the sections which ultimately, will not form part of the restored navigation.
Can you remember where it was?
@@CourtAboveTheCut The stretch heading east alongside the A420 from where the Amazon warehouse is these days.
@@GARDENER42 ah yeah that’s joining just before the road bridge on the eastern villages diversion, this bit is the first part that leads towards that
Just shows how profitable housebuilding is, if they can afford to build a new canal.
@@andrewhotston983 house prices increase when they are canalside, it more than pays for itself. Although they make an incredible amount of money anyway
The houses aren't cheap so I doubt the housebuilders have to worry about their next meal!
Nice info cheers buh
No worries
There is not much to praise in Birmingham but the canal system is one feature built about 200 years ago. A lot more could be done to maximise the asset with some imagination.
Many towns and cities across the uk under utilise the canal. It’s just starting to be seen as an asset rather than a dirty ditch. Some councillors are still a little older and set in their ways though!
It's a real shame they re not going back through Swindon town centre
@@eamonquinn5188 there is still a planned route to take the north wilts canal through, that used to come off where Debenhams was and go under the railway along the underpass near to the old oasis pool. There’s a few plans around but the thought is the new labour leadership in the town may be more keen to find a way to bring the canal though to canal walk in the town centre
Whoever runs Swindon is going to regret not routing this through the town centre. Would have been an excellent improvement to a pretty awful urban landscape. Silly.
@@chairmakerPete there are still plans to take the north wilts through the centre, let’s hope the labour government get onboard
@@CourtAboveTheCut fantastic! Hope you're right about Labour's support 🤞👍 Swindon needs all the help it can get!
@@chairmakerPete it would be a game changer for the town, I spent quite a lot of time in the town as a kid, then worked there in my late teens and it’s sad to see what it’s like now.
With so many shops and stores closing down running it right through the town centre they could create quite a nice restaurant area like Reading has.
its too dangerous to go through the center of town......these days its like a 3rd world s-hole.
Unless the Dutch build it , it would be dug up again like our roads are in 2 months. The Victorians knew how to build canals. 3:48 3:50
They did, with the technology they had as well it’s incredible what they did. Let’s give the guys a chance though
Where was and is the clay taken from for the canals base thanks. We Enjoy your information you give a lot of detail.❤
@@traceyb3752 the clay is recycled from site, as explained in the video they clear a section of 15-20m then as they start to clear the next section they use that clay to puddle the bit they just cleared. In wiltshire we have a lot of clay in our soil!
A canal is the countryside of a city.
Only fools would take it away.
I couldn’t put it better myself
Isn't it all a "glorified pond" unless it's used for something? With the switch to steel recycling with Arc Furnaces, and the future likely being more recycling, and hopefully some returning domestic industry, it'd be nice to think we could put scrap and primary commodity on the canals. It'd have to be automated to some degree - that kind of work wouldn't pay modern rent!
@@trs4u yep, exactly what I keep saying, it’s 7x more fuel efficient to run goods via canal than it is roads, and 4x more than rail. It’s a win win, better for the environment and brings income to the canal
I was a Labour Councillor in Stroud and when we took over the Stroud Water project from the previous administration we commissioned a survey into the financial benefit of restoring what is still a pond. As I remember along with heritage lottery we spent about £20m, the financial benifit was £126m. It came mainly from canal side development & canal side business, and that's before a single barge was floated. In the near term it will be connected to the network and income will come from the boats using it. The local economy is boosted by boat owners spending money, cycle hire along the tow path, pubs and resteraunts along the tow path, maintainance spend with local engineering firms and less easy to quantify is the health and well-being impact on local residents. To give them credit the Conservatives started the project, but they tended to be fixated on cost. Under Labour and now the Greens the project continues and the focus has switched to the wider benifit. I honestly don't think commercial traffic will ever use cannals much again but in today's different economic circumstances it isn't required for cannals to have a future.
The traditional way of puddling clay was with several hundred navvies
Yes but cattle were widely used where available. They’d run them up and down until it was compact. I’ve been on another canal this weekend where they had a sheep’s foot roller working, it’s not quite puddling but building the height of the land up ready for the canal which should come soon
It will also be good when the Wichelstowe section gets unblocked as well. The owner seems to have done everything he can, its SBC that is holding up resolving it.
@@TheMdw59 although the council have been painfully slow they have had issues with the weather. It’s hard to monitor when it’s constantly raining!
There was a chain across the water under the footbridge just north of Waitrose, I'm not sure how far Dragonfly can go but is that really still there if it's running?
@@sIightIybored it’s not running that end at the moment, there’s a dispute with the landowner and the council so he’s closed it off, stuffs happening behind the scenes all the time to resolve the issue. The dispute doesn’t involve the trust, they’ve always had a very good relationship.
@@CourtAboveTheCut From the letters posted previously on the local noticeboard by the owner, the dispute is over the legal boundaries when the property was first purchased by his father and SBC are igoring all requests to share them. SBCs refusal to co-operate is a big indicator who may be at fault.
@@TheMdw59 it’s a covenant on the original documents that dated to the 70s the son of the original owner is disputing it. I know of behind the scenes stuff but I can’t really say more as I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say publicly. Hopefully it’s all on its way to being sorted
i am wanting to walk little bits of the route but wondering where to park?
@@mijzzzz the swindon section?
You can’t walk down the under construction but but if you park somewhere near the pin I add you can walk down to the bridge that’s boarded up
@@mijzzzz maps.app.goo.gl/XfCUy13NVvwfaVf66?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy
@@mijzzzz to walk the last section I walk down you can park in the Waitrose car park maps.app.goo.gl/xQfeSxRBoxudxk4q6?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy
@@CourtAboveTheCutthank you, I was worried about parking waitrose or mannington retail as small print says only for customers?
@@mijzzzz we park in there regularly when we go for a walk with the kids, we usually use the cafe and toilets in waitrose and then have a walk. We have never had a ticket
The various elements of what you are talking about would have been easier to understand if you had used drone footage accompanied by commentary at each point. It's a lot of information to take onboard without being able to see what's what in sequence. Still photography is nice, but it's nigh on impossible to get a holistic understanding of the overall project in the space of just one video.
I tried that but long stretches of drone footage give a real dip in retention. That’s why I try and mix it up a little
@CourtAboveTheCut Fair enough. So strange that you had this reaction. Joe Tegtmeyer in the USA uses that format to cover Tesla's Giga Austin facility, its lithium production plant, SpaceX, and the Boring Company. He has a HUGE following of his channel.
@@pinkelephants1421 I think it’s the subject, I follow stadium builds and all the guys do it on there. Most of my audience is towards retirement age and although the drone stuff is liked the full videos don’t go down well. I used to make 2 videos, a drone only video and a walking and talking video, the drone videos always had low views. I now only do them for narrowboat members only, no overlays etc just some music and all my shots.
@@CourtAboveTheCut Yeah, demographics can be the difference between successful content and death by trying too hard. Best of luck with your channel in the future.
What other country in the world is building a late eighteenth century transport system in 2024?
@@chronixchaos7081 France, germany, Belgium, China, Egypt, India, holland, russia, Thailand, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Luxembourg, Poland, Czechia….
Not to mention restorations throughout the USA, the suez and Panama being extended.
yes great video but the commentary could have been a lot better, your speaking so fast just cant take in what your saying! shame. But, well done all those who are involved in the works, hope to be able to catch the progress with a commentary that we can follow.
I look forward to your instalment
waste of tax payers money
@@titan-kd7en it’s a good job the tax payer isn’t paying a penny then isn’t it.
@@CourtAboveTheCut
A fair point.
However who pays in years to come?
Difficult to know until there's some sort of press release.
@@t1n4444 as it stands it’ll be managed by the trust, CRT aren’t really taking on new canals apart from where they own the line (anything abandoned in the 30s onwards generally although mostly stuff in the 60s. They are still managed by trusts. IF for some reason the cash situation changes for CRT where tax payers money is used then you need to look at the bigger picture. Currently £54 Million I think is the figure given from the tax payer, that’s dropping, BUT the canal network is worth £6.1 billion to the local economy, health and well being and savings tk the NHS. I can’t remember the financial only value but it’s somewhere around £1.3-£1.8 billion a year so investment is tiny compared to earnings.
Many studies show these schemes deliver many times the returns than is spent.
@@CourtAboveTheCut Have they manage to negotiate to get a percentage of those flats service fees to fund the trust?
Not gonna lie but down south doesnt need anything... not one fucking thing... up north needs a lot of work, especially restoration of canals ... our environment up here is declining dramatically, disgusting how the north gets absolutly nothing... manchester needs help too on our waterways especially ashton canal, peak forest canal... and also our rivers medlock goyt etherow and tame
@@LG-RiverFishingUK I agree 100% and I recently covered the Stockport branch. This isn’t government funded though it’s private