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Now to bring the 200 year history of the Buckingham Canal up to date. | |||||||||||
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After the abandonment of the canal in 1964. The part from Cosgrove to the dam at bridge 1 was used as a marina and the rest of the canal was left. Parts of it in Old Stratford and Deanshanger and Buckingham were infilled and used for building. The rest of the canal was in rural areas and was left to silt up. The only work carried out on these sections, was to infill where some of bridges crossing the canal.
During 1975-1976 the construction of the new A5 (road trunk route from London to Holyhead in Wales), crossed the canal line to the east of Old Stratford. Then in 1989-1990, the building of the Old Stratford bypass road for the A422 (a UK East West road route) cut the canal line to the west of Old Stratford. The condition of the canal has since been on a down hill spiral, ending with the demise of the canal. In January 1992 the Buckingham Canal Society was formed with the objective of restoring the canal from Cosgrove to Buckingham, using as much of the original route as possible. To this end in 1994 they carried out a detailed survey of the canal. Details of the survey can be viewed on their website www.mkheritage.co.uk/bcs The plan for the restoration will be to restore the canal from Cosgrove to where it is cut by the A5. At the same time restoring the canal from Buckingham to where it is cut by the A422. Once these lengths a have been restored, the main problem areas, being the two road crossings, will be tackled. So why restore a derelict canal in the first place as there is no commercial traffic to use it? Canals are now looked on as an asset to an area, and not as a dirty smelly thing that no one wanted. It is the growing use of canals for leisure that has caused the renewed interest in canals. Click here to view the modern day use of the canal. (650k download) |
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