Llangollen Canal - Whitchurch, Shropshire canal breach: 22 Dec 2025

[whole diary]

[grahame]

The board for so much of this stuff is, probably ...

Heritage railways, Railtours, buses, canals, steamships and other public transport based attractions
Railway lines and other public transport attractions, largely separate from the national network. Covers those saved from closure, reinstated or specially built and includes commemorative events.

... and there seems to be scope there for leisure canals.  The Llangollen current issue thread there, perhaps.  I would get concerned if we had separate threads for every arm (Wendover Arm or Bumblehole Basin, anyone) but then I guess if we ended up with an Ardingly and a Mannez  Quarry thread that would be getting interesting - if perhaps member driven so we would move with it.

[Electric train]

Sorry, I'm in the middle of moving it: it's a specific infrastructure issue in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), not a viable alternative means of travel.
There isn't a specific board for 'canals': perhaps there should be?
CfN^▸ (Chris from Nailsea, an administrator on this forum). 

Ah ... where??  I think we both come from the viewpoint that the canals are not really a means of transport these days.

Would the same argument be used for heritage railways?   Just being the Devils Advocate 

Thank you for your post, Electric train.

You make a good point - but one which I would rebut, as follows:

Firstly, we do indeed have a very substantial number of topics relating specifically to heritage railways - of which there are many, throughout the UK, and which carry thousands of (generally leisure) passengers.  Similarly, we have several topics covering ferries, steamships and other public transport based attractions.  These often 'heritage attractions' are generally widely used, judging by the sheer number of posts they generate on the Coffee Shop forum.  Not so much so with 'canals' - which were never much of a 'tourist attraction' - more an historic working environment in the wider infrastructure.

Secondly, (and perhaps more personally), I know that most of the administrator and moderator team here on the forum have something of a 'canal / narrowboat' background (myself included). While we also have active interests in heritage railways, I may perhaps have favoured 'canals' disproportionately in my own posting out on the forum. There is, however, absolutely nothing to say that any of our members should not post anything relevant about canals, heritage railways, or their historic infrastructure (whether on land or over waterways).

Meanwhile, may I offer best wishes to all of those boatowners, families and others dealing with that Llangollen canal incident. Chris from Nailsea.

As I said just being Devils Advocate 

I have been a boater on the Thames, canals and sea going far longer than I worked on the railways.  Llangollen canal incident sadly means a number of people have not just lost their boat but the home, luckily there was no loss of life or serious injury

[grahame]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Repairing a canal collapse that left boats swallowed up in a deep trench as water poured out could take most of 2026, authorities have said

[Chris from Nailsea]

For the canals, that's the equivalent of the 2014 Dawlish sea wall railways incident.

[ChrisB]

From Independent, via MSN

First of three stranded narrow boats refloated after Shropshire canal breach

A narrow boat left high and dry by a pre-Christmas canal bank collapse has been successfully refloated by waterways engineers.

The stern of the Pacemaker was left hanging precariously over a 50-metre-long “sinkhole” in Whitchurch, Shropshire, three weeks ago, after an incident its owner likened to being caught in a waterfall.

Two other narrow boats remain stranded in the bottom of the breach, ahead of an operation to winch them clear due to begin later this week.

Engineers from the Canal & River Trust oversaw the operation to refloat the Pacemaker, which saw the craft pulled underneath a movable footbridge and then refloated inside a temporary dam.

Fire crews helped around 12 people to safety after declaring a major incident at 4.22am on December 22 as millions of gallons of water escaped from the canal.

After the Pacemaker was moved using a winch, engineers took just over an hour to fill a newly-dammed area with water, allowing the boat to rejoin the canal network.

The boat’s owner Paul Stowe then stepped on board to inspect the inside.

Mr Stowe, who is currently living in rented accommodation, recalled how he had rescued his cats as he and family members saw a “gaping hole” appear under the boat, having been woken at around 4.05am.

He told the Press Association: “At the moment I don’t feel like the boat’s mine.

“There are an awful lot of people here.

“Once everybody’s gone and once we’ve had it inspected and checked, we’ve had all the repairs done and it’s back in the water, then I’ll feel like it’s my boat.”

Describing the canal breach, Mr Stowe added: “When it actually happened I looked over the stern of the boat and within 20 minutes this went from nothing to an enormous hole in the ground.

“It was almost like an implosion.”

The Canal & River Trust said its teams are ensuring that pipes and pumps are in place to safeguard a continued flow of water around the breach site, so boats downstream on the Llangollen Canal are kept afloat.

Julie Sharman, chief operating officer at the Trust, said: “We know how deeply distressing this breach has been for the boaters and local community.

“After initially making sure everyone was safe, a key area of focus has been recovering the last boats impacted ahead of the long and expensive job of getting the canal rebuilt and back open.

“I’d like to thank all those who have supported, including all who donated to assist the boaters affected, as well as those donating to our longer-term task of getting this historic canal back open in the weeks and months ahead.

“We’re still investigating the likely cause of the breach. The reasons behind earth embankment failures are not always clear, and multiple factors may be involved. We are undertaking a full and robust investigation and will make a summary of the findings publicly available in the coming weeks.”

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

'England's canals are not valued by government', says chairman of Shropshire trust

[Image from here is not available to guests]
Michael Limbrey is chairman of the Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust

England's canals are not valued enough by the government and need more funding support, the chair of a waterways trust says.

Michael Limbrey has spoken out after the collapse of the Llangollen canal in Shropshire that left narrowboat owners stranded, just before Christmas. "[Canals are] part of the history and the landscape of our country," said Limbrey, chair of Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust (MWRT), in north Shropshire. "A whole network of waterways spreading across our country don't seem to be valued."

But, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) says it is investing more than £480m into infrastructure maintenance by the Canal and River Trust (CRT). Defra stressed the waterways are much-valued by the government, especially because of the wide range of benefits they provide.

Several boaters were left without their homes when the canal collapsed, just outside Whitchurch on 22 December, and repairs could cost millions. On Tuesday Paul Stowe, whose family owns a boat left hanging over a huge hole when the collapse happened in the early hours, saw it refloated after a salvage operation.

MWRT is currently reviving the Montgomery Canal, which branches off the Llangollen Canal.

[Image from here is not available to guests]
Limbrey described as "shocking" the breach of the Llangollen Canal, which is expected to cost millions of pounds to restore

"The government contribution to the maintenance to the canals is not as much as it should be," said Limbrey. "They're part of the history and the landscape of our country, we have stately homes, we have castles, we have many historic structures, Roman remains... that are valued. Yet these thousands of miles of canal... a whole network of waterways spreading across our country don't seem to be valued in the same way as these individual spots are."

Limbrey said following the collapse, which he described as "shocking" and "devastating", he saw a lot of commentary about money online. "The comments that came through were, 'Why bother with canals, why should money be spent on the canals?'"

"The canal network is such an asset right across the country. It's got access for so many people for recreation, for wellbeing, it's got the canalside businesses, it's got an amazing range of structures, locks and weirs and bridges - all built on the canal 200 years ago. All of these things add up to this amazing resource... people can just walk onto the towpath and get on it and enjoy for free, at any time."

The CRT was set up in 2012 to replace the publicly-owned British Waterways. Back then, the government agreed to provide a grant to the charity across the first 15 years, amounting to about £740m in total.

Defra said this was primarily to support its infrastructure maintenance programme, to ensure navigability and public safety, while the CRT became established and developed alternative sources of funding.

The government also provided a permanent endowment fund, now worth about £1bn, that generates a further quarter of its income. The CRT and Defra signed a memorandum of understanding in 2012 that said the CRT would move towards greater self-sufficiency over time, reducing its reliance on public funding.

Defra said the grant agreement was clear that there was no obligation for the government to fund the charity beyond 2027. However, following a review it has agreed a further 10-year grant funding package of £480m, from 2027. This, it said, was because it recognised the CRT was providing good value for money and delivering a wide range of public benefits.

[paul7575]

The two boats that were down in the breach had been pulled out onto the level canal bed by yesterday evening, today should see them refloated by building a portable dam behind them.  There are loads of YouTube videos of yesterday’s work, but here’s one which covers both and has the best coverage of the more difficult second boat, (the one with the bow partially buried), which was pulled stern first:

https://youtu.be/9ErDrPh4hD8?si=hewNSddJSQiiu4qP

[Mark A]

Thanks for that link. Good to see this handled somewhat sensitively here and also reflects well on the Canal and River Trust.

Mark

[Phil]

Just to say, that film (and the link to it) was by a gentleman named Steve Court who has, throughout this whole awful incident, reported factually, sensibly, undramatically and with extreme sympathy to everyone concerned. He's a credit to the canal "family", just as several people hereabouts are a credit to the wider railway scene, and deserves to be applauded for his efforts. I happen to know him personally, and he gives up a great deal of his valuable time (he runs his own very successful plumbing business here in West Wiltshire - my home restoration a decade or so ago happened to be his very first job when he resigned from British Gas and went solo!) supporting good causes such as the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust. He can also be seen on a couple of DIY SOS programmes that air on catch-up TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) from time to time, selflessly installing plumbing in the homes of deserving members of the public. A top bloke in other words.