C O N T E X T 1 3 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 4 43 NIGEL CROWE New directions for waterways heritage management The Canal & River Trust is developing a series of heritage management tools, including national and local listed building consent orders, and heritage partnership agreements. The Canal & RiverTrust is the guardian of 2,000 miles of historic inland waterways in England and Wales. It replaced British Waterways in 2012 in a move that represents the biggest change in ownership of canals and rivers in over 50 years, and one that has positive implications for many of the heritage assets on the inland waterways. One of the charitable objectives of the trust is ‘to protect and conserve for public benefit sites, objects and buildings of archaeological, architectural, engineering or historic interest on, in the vicinity of, or otherwise associated with inland waterways’. The trust’s waterways are internationally significant, reflecting Britain’s emergence as the first industrial nation. Current heritage data shows the scale of the trust’s heritage assets.These include 2,701 listed buildings (the third largest collection in Britain), 49 scheduled monuments and 313 conservation areas. The trust’s waterways bisect or adjoin 63 historic parks and gardens, nine historic battlefields, three national parks and five world heritage sites, one of which, PontcysyllteAqueduct, is Britain’s only specifically canal-oriented inscription. Managing all these heritage assets is a continuous task. In the 1980s it was spasmodic, but from the early 1990s the then BritishWaterways worked steadily towards improving its heritage management and conservation skills. Heritage training campaigns, run with the support of English Heritage’s building conservation team, were a feature of the period. Hundreds of BritishWaterways staff went on to complete a bespoke City and Guilds qualification in heritage conservation. By the mid-2000s the quality of physical works had improved dramatically and conserving the waterways heritage had become a key activity for BritishWaterways. Today, the trust’s heritage activity is supported by a dedicated heritage team, heritage-aware staff and a growing number of enthusiastic volunteers with a range of skills. The trust has a set of written standards for heritage, it keenly monitors heritage performance, compliance and the condition of heritage assets, and it reflects on all these things in its annual State of the Waterways Heritage report. Its own specialist heritage advisory committee is chaired by Sir Neil Cossons. Jointly with the trust, this committee has drawn up aStatement of Principles for waterways heritage. The trust is keen to progress with new, more efficient heritage management tools. Some of these are already operating. Others are now possible thanks to the passing of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA).The big idea, so far as the trust is concerned, is the adoption of a national listed building consent order (LBCO).This is currently being developed with English Heritage and DCLG. National listed building consent order The trust’s LBCO will permit pre-consented, specific works of maintenance, repair or occasional alteration to two specific listed building types that are common throughout the trust’s estate. These are locks and traditional masonry arch bridges. The justification for taking this new direction is as follows. The trust owns 643 listed locks in England which could potentially be covered by the LBCO.These locks Far left: Maintaining and repairing canals is a continuous job: a stoppage on the Grand Union Canal, 1914 Members of the voluntary Waterway Recovery Group carrying out repairs and repainting Lady Capel’s Bridge, Grand Union Canal (CopyrightWRG) Heritage training: volunteers and trust staff at a lime-mortar day at Tilstone Lock beehive hovel, Shropshire Union Canal
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