English Heritage help
BRITISH Waterways has received £7,000 of funding from English Heritage to carry out maintenance and improvement work over three years on side ponds of Hanwell Flight on the Grand Union Canal.
Volunteers from Hanwell Community Forum, Brent River & Canal Society, Thames 21 and local residents have also been at work on the flight sprucing-up the area.
Side ponds at risk
Hanwell Flight, just up from where the Grand Union Canal meets the Thames, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and shown on the Heritage at Risk register as vegetation had taken over the side ponds, on the extreme right of the photograph.
Following the initial clearance by British Waterways in 2010/11, as a first stage in the project the volunteers will concentrate on keeping the vegetation growth under control, sprucing up the site and improving the paths.
Refurbish
In the longer term, and subject to attracting further funding and donation of material by local businesses, the aim is to refurbish the side ponds to working order. Opened in 1816 as a means of saving water, these ponds are currently redundant and the project will make them an integral part of the area, repairing brickwork and replacing paddles.
The project would involve volunteers in both heritage and environmental conservation activities. Supported by British Waterways' heritage and environment teams, volunteers would learn how to carry out brickwork repair using traditional skills and reinstate timber paddles, building and installing kingfisher perch boxes and animal ramps, creating habitat piles for newts and insects such as the rare greater horned stag beetle and planting one pond with emergent plants to encourage dragonflies.
The next volunteer day is on Sunday 7th August. For more information on volunteering opportunities at Hanwell Flight, or if you would like to donate materials, please contact Becky Williams on: