Launch of the Montgomery Appeal

FOLLOWING recent grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Inland Waterways Association, organisations promoting the restoration of the Montgomery Canal have come together to launch an appeal for the next stage of its restoration.

The appeal, titled Restore the Montgomery Canal!, is managed by a steering group on behalf of the Friends of the Montgomery Canal, Shropshire Union Canal Society, and Shrewsbury District & North Wales branch of the Inland Waterways Association.

Anonymous donor

The Appeal will be started at 11.45am on Wednesday 26th April 2017 by Mr Charles Lillis, High Sheriff of Shropshire, at The Navigation Inn, Maesbury Marsh, Oswestry SY10 8JB, and will benefit from the generosity of an anonymous donor who will match every pound up to £60,000 raised by the appeal over five years.

Michael Limbrey, Chairman, Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust, explained:

"The lottery grant means that volunteers of the Shropshire Union Canal Society can restore the canal to Crickheath, and that will open over a mile of new canal. Then there will be just two miles of derelict canal to be restored through Pant to reach Llanymynech.

"This canal in this section has been dry for over half a century. Now we want to reline the canal bed so it can hold water again. We will also remove the old rail embankment at Pant, and volunteers of the Waterway Recovery Group have already prepared it for removal. Finally, we have to rebuild School House Bridge, south of Crickheath, destroyed many years ago, and the recent grant from the Inland Waterways Association is a massive contribution to this work.

"We want to see volunteers doing as much of the restoration as possible, because that keeps the cost down. We know they can do so because there are already active and committed volunteers who come to work on the canal, some of them from many miles away.

"The restoration now has more momentum than ever. Our ambition is to get to Llanymynech in ten years, provided we can raise the money. That is part of a larger plan to tackle the road crossings which obstruct the canal to Welshpool.

"The restored canal will highlight a 200 years old story with locks, bridges and aqueducts from the days of the Industrial Revolution, and will too protect its special ecology. Bringing the canal to life will unlock so many benefits for the area, both for local communities and for visitors, so creating jobs and business opportunities."

Appeal

 After the formal launch of the appeal, there will be an open meeting from 4pm to 7pm when members of the public are invited to hear the plans for restoration, to ask questions and to give their ideas about the restoration.