Work begins to restore canal filled in for M5

Work has begun to restore a missing section of canal that was filled in to make way for the construction of the M5 in the 1960s.

After years of planning, volunteers from the Cotswold Canal Trust have started work on the Missing Mile project.

The work will see the Stroudwater Navigation waterway restored - alongside locks, bridges and wetlands - to create a navigable route from the River Severn to River Thames.

"We can't restore the canal along its old route, so we now have to work to a different alignment," said the trust's chairman of trustees David Hagg. "At the moment, we've got lots of volunteers digging a new canal channel."

The canal will go underneath the M5 alongside the River Frome, mitigating any need for road closures during its construction.

Hagg believes reconnecting and regenerating the canal corridor will lead to economic and environmental benefits to the area.

"A lot of people want to see the canal restored and it's been a long-term ambition," he said.

"The Cotswold Canal Trust has been going for 50 years and we hope by the time that we get to the 250th anniversary of the canal first being opened [in 2029] that we will be able to reopen the restored canal."

The trust said it had a paid engineer for the project, but most of the hard work was being done by volunteers.

Andy Timbrell is one of those volunteers and is currently working on a construction team of 12.

"This was completely alien to me," he said. "I knew nothing about this when I started.

"I've learned more in four years here than I did in the past five or six at work."

He added: "At the end of the day, you can put your hands in your pocket and say 'I've achieved something'. It would be so easy to sit at home doing nothing, but you can come out here and do a bit of work and have a bit of banter."

Funding for the project has come from a number of sources, including fundraising by the Cotswold Canal Trust and a £6.4m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

"We know that people care for it, we kow that it's used for recreation purposes," said Stuart McLeod, area director of the heritage fund.

"But what's been really impressive with this project is also the engagement of communities that didn't have much relationship with the canal," he added.

"The other really special thing about this project is the huge number of volunteers involved."

McLeod said the passion showed for the project was "incredible".

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