26 C O N T E X T 9 9 : M A Y 2 0 0 7 NIGEL CROWE Managing the waterways heritage The inland waterways were once the Cinderella of the transport system. They no longer carry much freight, but they and their heritage are at last being taken seriously. Which organisation has the longest historic estate and the third largest collection of listed buildings in the UK? The answer is British Waterways. A public corporation established by the 1962 Transport Act, today it manages and maintains 2,200 miles of canals and river navigations in England, Scotland andWales. British Waterways is sponsored by Defra and by the Scottish Executive. For England and Wales British Waterways’ present-day aims and objectives are set by two government documents: the Framework Document for BritishWaterways (1999) andWaterways for Tomorrow (2000). For Scotland, Scotland’s Canals: an asset for the future (2002) is the essential policy document. Throughout the UK one of British Waterways’ core objectives is to manage and conserve the heritage of the inland waterways on behalf of the nation. The British Waterways estate contains 2,664 listed buildings, a number exceeded only by the National Trust with around 3,500 and the Church of England with around 12,200. An indication of the relative completeness and heritage value of many historic waterways structures is found in English Heritage’s listing guidelines for Transport Buildings (March 2007). It notes that ‘the canal network was largely in place by the 1830s and most canal buildings surviving in anything like their original form will be listable.’ In fact it is British Waterways’ philosophy to treat all of its heritage assets as if they were listed, whether they are or not. In addition to listed buildings, British Waterways has 43 scheduled monuments, 159 conservation areas extending over 340 linear miles, and many thousands of archaeological sites. Waterways in general are rich in archaeology. Recent surveys of the Thames and Severn Canal and the Stroudwater Navigation (which have advanced plans for restoration) identified over 500 sites with potential archaeological deposits along a 36-mile length. British Waterways’ historic estate also includes 12 historic battlefields, and 16 registered parks and gardens, and it bisects or adjoins four world heritage sites. Waterways heritage largely consists of historic engineering structures: locks, bridges, aqueducts, tunnels and suchlike. It is often working heritage that has to earn its living and calls for careful management if its life is to be extended.Two-hundred-year-old locks still work in the way they were originally designed. Modern users must wind paddle gear and heave on balance beams like the boatmen of the past. Water supply still relies on 18th and 19th century reservoirs, even if weirs and pumps have been renewed or installed over time. Continued use, change of use and decay are the main problems affecting British Waterways’ heritage Grade II listed warehouses undergoing repair in 2006 as part of the Gloucester Docks regeneration. This work has now been completed.
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