There is a lovely sight taking shape on the Lichfield Canal this week: water. Volunteers with the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust have completed 85 metres of brand-new channel at Gallows Reach, and the stretch is now partially in water — a real milestone on the road to full re-watering.
The finished section has been bunded off to hold the water in place. That does two jobs at once: it protects the newly built channel while work carries on upstream, and it frees the team to move straight on to the next phase, heading toward the liftbridge.
It is the reward for months of steady graft, including the recent removal of the “Big Pipe” that had been crossing the line of the canal. Bit by bit, metre by metre, the volunteers are turning a dry cutting back into a working waterway — and with momentum high, attention now turns east toward the liftbridge and the next stretch of Gallows Reach.
Hats off to everyone who has put in the hours to get here. You can read the Trust’s own update here: Gallows Reach marks major milestone.
