Where there’s a ‘will’ there’s a way

Plans to link Welshpool with the rest of Britain via the canal network have received a boost with a £40,000 legacy from the estate of a supporter in Cheshire.

The legacy comes while preparations continue to rebuild Schoolhouse Bridge, the last bridge blockage for the Montgomery Canal in Shropshire.

Michael Limbrey, Chairman of the Restore the Montgomery Canal! appeal said: “This legacy is another example of the support we have for our programme to revive the Montgomery Canal.

“Restoration will bring many benefits to the area and adds a very special canal to the network of waterways that extends from Wiltshire to Yorkshire and into East Anglia.

“This support is timely because we are still heavily engaged in the preparation to rebuild Schoolhouse Bridge near Oswestry, a vital step to restoring the canal to the Welsh border at Llanymynech.

“A number of bridges have already been rebuilt on the Montgomery Canal and canal volunteers have built or restored bridges on other canal restorations too, but our project is unusual as the volunteer-led reconstruction of a bridge on a public highway using volunteers as much as possible – in today’s climate that is the really only way the bridge can be reopened.

“We still have to finalise a number of engineering and procedural details for the bridge and as these are still outstanding we are reluctantly having to delay the project for a year.

“This means we can use 2020 to resolve the issues currently holding us up and make sure everything is ready for a start in spring 2021.

“Unfortunately some of these details are leading us to expect that the cost will be higher than we had expected so this legacy is a welcome help towards the extra cost. We shall too have another year to raise the rest of what we need - and if we raise too much we will be able to use the surplus on the next stages of restoration."

The Restore the Montgomery Canal! appeal is run by the local canal charities, the Friends of the Montgomery Canal, Shropshire Union Canal Society and Inland Waterways Association.

More about support for the Montgomery Canal at www.RestoreTheMontgomeryCanal.uk/donate.html .