Canal comes back to life

devon.editorial@archant.co.uk
17 August 2006

ABANDONED and forgotten for nearly 140 years, a section of Lord Rolle's Canal, sometimes known as The Torrington Canal, is once again coming to light near Weare Giffard.

Since first investigating a "damp depression" in their riverside grazing land at Annery Kiln, Adrian and Hilary Wills have spent the past 18 years slowly uncovering a half-mile section of what was once an important industrial highway.

After years of clearing undergrowth and digging out tons of mud, to reveal the waterway and also create a wildlife haven - recently designated a Devon County Wildlife Site - this summer has brought a major construction milestone with the arrival of teams of volunteers for a restoration project of the sea lock which formed the entrance of the canal.

More than two-dozen volunteers from The Rolle Canal and Northern Devon Waterways Society have come from as far afield as Dublin, Glasgow and even France for two, week-long, work camps at the site to uncover and restore remains of the once vital link and mode of transport.

Some are working towards Duke of Edinburgh awards, some have tried other voluntary work and are looking for something different and some are just captivated by canals.

Built by James Green, who was also responsible for the design and construction of the Bude Canal, the Rolle Canal was opened in 1825 to increase the import of limestone and coal and the export of local timber and clay on 20-ft long tub boats towed in strings by horses.

The canal was, for a period, a very important method of transporting large quantities of heavy goods inland that would otherwise have been laboriously carried by strings of packhorses or on horse-drawn wagons. It also directly and indirectly provided many people with employment, thereby improving the prosperity of those around it.

It ran for some seven miles, following the River Torridge from the Sea Lock at Annery via a 50 foot rise up an inclined plain at Ridd and an aqueduct at Beam to Torrington and through R.H.S. Rosemoor Gardens to Healand Dock.

The canal was short-lived, due mainly to the advent of steam power and the coming of the London & S.W. Railway to North Devon, which bought it out in the 1870s.

The current restoration work at the entrance to the canal is clearly visible in the winter months from the Tarka Trail just south of Landcross.

It has includes cleaning, re-pointing and rebuilding where necessary, the eastern wall of the Sea Lock chamber as well as clearing vegetation.

The Waterway Recovery Group is an off-shoot of the Inland Waterways Association. Groups of adult volunteers spend working holidays on various canal restoration projects, organised and directed by skilled team leaders.

This work is being funded predominantly through a grant from the North West Devon Leader+ scheme.

While it is highly improbable that sufficient length of this canal will ever be returned to a state which will allow boats to travel any distance on it, the waterway was worth saving for the future because it was an unusual example of the area's industrial, agricultural and social heritage and had a great bearing on the development of North West Devon, said Adrian.

He and Hilary, who are founder members of The Rolle Canal and Northern Devon Waterways Society, give guided tours to organised groups or individuals by arrangement. They have already hosted a number of local schools, canal societies and history groups.

During removal of silt from the lock chamber and loading basin a number of interesting finds have been made.

These include wrought iron 'eyes' probably for attaching ropes to large baulks of timber for towing down the canal, a wooden "bushel" measuring bucket, large coping stones of Lundy granite , a steam box, used for heating and softening timber prior to bending for boat building, a cast iron pulley wheel and numerous hand-made bricks.

Moored within the canal's loading basin is an historic Taw- Torridge sand barge, which is awaiting restoration, if and when funds are available.

Volunteers are welcomed for lots of hedging, tree clearing, planting and general maintenance of the wildlife sanctuary as well as for work on the canal project.

For more information contact Adrian or Hilary on (01237) 477705.