CONTEXT 176 : JUNE 2023 23 WORLD HERITAGE SITES All these designations can increase the level of complexity around the management of the canal as a working recreational asset. Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal World Heritage Site is managed by a stakeholder partnership, overseen by the World Heritage Site Strategic Board with three delivery subgroups for visitor management and economic regeneration; planning, landscape and conservation; and learning. The partnership comprises members of the Canal and River Trust as primary landowner, the three local authorities, and statutory advisers from Cadw, Historic England, ICOMOS and the area of outstanding natural beauty. However, with its designation boundary closely following the canal corridor, the principal day-to-day operation of the canal and the maintenance of many of its associated structures is the responsibility of the Canal and River Trust. The Canal and River Trust is a charity created in 2012 to safeguard and maintain over 2,000 miles of inland waterways across England and Wales. Although primarily a health-and-wellbeing charity, recognising and promoting the positive value that blue and green spaces can have on the physical and mental health of the population, the trust has heritage conservation very much at its heart, owning and caring for the third largest historic estate in the UK, after the Church of England and the National Trust. At the time of writing, the trust owns 2,707 listed buildings and 47 scheduled monuments, and has canals passing through seven registered parks and gardens and six historic battlefields. The trust also has canals running through four designated world heritage sites in England and Wales (Bath, Blaenavon, Saltaire and Pontcysyllte), with only Pontcysyllte designated specifically for its canal-related infrastructure. The inscribed length of canal is part of a 19-kilometre ‘pound’ that has no locks, so the consequences of failure of any of the assets would be potentially catastrophic. There are records of several breaches within the inscribed area at Bryn Howel, Sunn Trevor and Chirk Bank. These are all attributable to failures of the man-made embankments on the downhill side of the canal, resulting in large areas having been relined with concrete over the decades. As well as having a detailed heritage policy and standards to ensure that our heritage assets are maintained and repaired in an appropriate way, the Canal and River Trust has a robust national asset management policy that ensures we keep high-quality data and information to assist us in making informed decisions about maintenance and repair. The asset inspection procedure defines the requirements and responsibilities for the inspection of operational infrastructure and assets. A hierarchical and cyclical threestage inspection process comprises bi-monthly visual safety and service inspections, biennial general inspections, and principal inspections, the cycle of which will be between six and 24 years, depending on the condition and risk of the asset, determined by a risk matrix. All of these inspections are undertaken by appropriately certified inspectors within the Canal and River Trust. With nearly 350,000 visitors each year, primarily concentrated around the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Trevor Basin, balancing the requirements of modern health and safety and the conservation of a 230-year-old asset with the expectations and needs of visitors can be a challenge. The Canal and River Trust is working with the partnership, and other consultants, to look at how visitors can be better managed, and whether physical interventions are required to improve visitor safety while seeking to minimise any potential impacts on the significance and outstanding values of the site. A site-wide masterplan has been drawn up in collaboration with the partnership, and the landscape, planning and conservation sub-group. The first elements of this are now being implemented to better open up the canal basin, improve visitor access and provide better facilities. Completed in 1805 to the design of Thomas Telford and William Jessop, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee. It is the longest aqueduct in Great Britain and the world’s highest canal aqueduct. (Photo: Chris Davies) Peter Chowns is principal architect and conservation specialist at the Canal and River Trust.
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