| West Midlands boaters race against clock as drained canals close - August 2026 Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 17:11, 2nd August 2026 |     |
From the BBC:
Boaters race against clock as drained canals close
Repair work is under way at a lock on the Hatton flight near Warwick - Image © Nici Griffin
Boaters are racing against the clock to beat canal closures as waterways run dry due to extreme heat.
Some channels connecting large parts of the Midlands and the North of England have lost several inches of water, leaving narrowboats stuck and those already on the canals facing being stranded miles from home for weeks on end.
Campaigner George Seward said he was getting up at 05:00 BST and cruising until dark to get his narrowboat through the Atherstone flight of locks, after a sudden closure was announced. "They're unlikely to be open again for many weeks and I want to make sure I get through that flight so I can get my boat safely home," he said.
The locks on the Coventry Canal in Warwickshire are due to shut on Tuesday morning, with last entry on Monday afternoon, as the Canal and River Trust (CRT) tries to conserve dwindling supplies.
For Seward, who is Midlands regional chair of the Association of Waterways Cruising Clubs, the deadline is the difference between getting his boat home to Hinckley in Leicestershire and being potentially marooned for an unspecified period.
(BBC article continues)
Repair work is under way at a lock on the Hatton flight near Warwick - Image © Nici Griffin
Boaters are racing against the clock to beat canal closures as waterways run dry due to extreme heat.
Some channels connecting large parts of the Midlands and the North of England have lost several inches of water, leaving narrowboats stuck and those already on the canals facing being stranded miles from home for weeks on end.
Campaigner George Seward said he was getting up at 05:00 BST and cruising until dark to get his narrowboat through the Atherstone flight of locks, after a sudden closure was announced. "They're unlikely to be open again for many weeks and I want to make sure I get through that flight so I can get my boat safely home," he said.
The locks on the Coventry Canal in Warwickshire are due to shut on Tuesday morning, with last entry on Monday afternoon, as the Canal and River Trust (CRT) tries to conserve dwindling supplies.
For Seward, who is Midlands regional chair of the Association of Waterways Cruising Clubs, the deadline is the difference between getting his boat home to Hinckley in Leicestershire and being potentially marooned for an unspecified period.
(BBC article continues)
