Living waterways transform places and enrich lives…

At nearly 70 miles long, the Wilts & Berks Canal is Britain’s longest and most complex waterway project… and progress is rapidly being made.

We need your help to be able to continue our work in creating this wonderful blue and green corridor which winds its way through our communities, from Wiltshire through Swindon and into Oxfordshire, bringing with it lifestyle and well-being benefits for people in those communities, water heritage and nature experiences for visitors to our area, and increasing biodiversity and wildlife habitats benefiting all sorts of creatures from water voles to dragonflies.

Our flagship project Studley Grange, which is part of the canal section joining Royal Wootton Bassett with Swindon, needs your help to complete the work.

Tilia and Phoebe want to walk down the towpath to see the bird boxes they have made and the wildflowers they have planted.

Heather is in training for the 2017 London Marathon and wants to be able to extend her training runs from Royal Wooton Bassett to Swindon and back in a safe and traffic free setting.

Richard wants suitable access for his wheelchair to be able to go along the towpath and see the water voles and the herons along this newly created stretch of the canal.

We need to move the last 5,000 cubic metres of clay (equivalent to approximately 550 skips) from the infilled line at Studley Grange and place it on the next door landfill site before the landfill site is closed later this year. We have done so much here already in the last two years and this final push will see this project finished, with this section in water and the towpath created for all to enjoy.

Please help us, and please help Tilia, Phoebe, Heather and Richard, by donating all you can by 28th August 2016, when we need to start this final phase of our flagship project.

With your help we can create this beautiful blue and green corridor which will wind its way through our communities, for us and for future generations to enjoy and cherish.

Update: 2nd November 2016  

Work is taking place to dig out the last section of the line and move the clay. It should be completed in the next few weeks, and forecast dry weather is good. After that there will be a plan for winter maintenance and planting. An announcement will be made when it is open to the public. We would still welcome donations to help fund this project, and any left over will go towards a fund to construct a new road bridge on Chaddington Lane to join the watered sections together.