The working group that keeps a beloved stretch of the Leeds-Liverpool canal shining

The Hyndburn Towpath Working Group has helped keep the Leeds-Liverpool canal sparkling.

Efforts by volunteers, artists and school children to improve part of the canal for Hyndburn residents came to fruition this month. The start of May marked the fifth anniversary of the Hyndburn Towpath Working Group, which maintains the area, while a new mural was unveiled to brighten up a previously unloved stretch of canal.

Lead volunteer for the task force Barbara Sharples said she was proud of the achievements of the small group, mainly made up of pensioners, over the past five years and that the community was enjoying the Hyndburn stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in growing numbers. result.

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“What we like is that when we’re working, people will walk by and say we’re doing a great job,” she told The Hyndburn Lead. “I just worked on Pilkington Bridge where there were some very large bushes and it was very dark and uninviting. I cut back the bushes to knee height which let in a lot of light and cleared all the mud and slush from the path.

“There is now a better surface for cyclists, pushchairs and wheelchairs and it is an attractive and welcoming space. A few ladies walked by and told us what a difference we made.”

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The task force, which meets every other Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., carries out vegetation maintenance, graffiti removal, litter pick-up, swing bridge painting and trail improvements.

“Access to nature is so important and it’s about making the towpaths more beautiful so people can enjoy them,” Sharples said. “We are all retired and we get a lot out of it. It keeps us in shape, we are in the fresh air. It’s good for our well-being and our physical health.”

The Super Slow Way is the cultural development program covering 20 miles of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Corridor, which stretches across East Lancashire, including Hyndburn. This month it unveiled a mural on the canal towpath in Church, Accrington. Artist Gavin Renshaw worked with pupils from The Hollins Secondary School to create the work entitled ‘The Wild Rose Thrives Where Castles Fall’.

“Gavin has been running workshops with young people and talking to them about the channel and what it means to them,” said Kate Kershaw, program manager for Super Slow Way.” The images relate to Brightwork – the paint used to decorate the working boats on the Leeds and Liverpool Canals – but also to both historical and contemporary canal scenes.”

The project came about, Kershaw said, after Sharples pointed out an existing mural, painted at the turn of the millennium, that had become worn.

“The original mural was only in the middle section of a long concrete wall and was a stylized map. Gavin refreshed the original mural and expanded it to cover the entire wall which is 120 meters long. We’re wondering if we should approach the Guinness Book of World Records as we think it could be the longest mural on a canal.”

The Hyndburn Towpath Taskforce volunteers on behalf of the Canal and Rivers Trust on the stretch of towpaths of the 200-year-old canal between Whitebirk in the west and Hapton in the east. The trust is also the lead body overseeing the work carried out by the Super Slow Way, which covers 20 miles of canal through East Lancashire. While the historic canals are still navigated by boats – with many moorings for short stays – their towpaths are increasingly popular spaces for walking, running, cycling and fishing, as well as for those accessing other activities on water such as rowing and paddle boarding.

According to the Canal and Rivers Trust, there were more than 800 million visits to Britain’s canals last year, with people experiencing the daily mental and physical benefits of spending time in nature and by the water. Canals deliver £1.1 billion in cost savings to the NHS every year, thanks to people being active along waterways and towpaths.

In January, the trust set out how these vital, historic and usually narrow routes can be used, managed and made more sustainably accessible in its Towpaths for Everyone policy. It highlights the value of investment in towpaths for partners such as local authorities as well as for society in general.

Director of the Canal and Rivers Trust, Heather Clarke, said: “With towpaths more popular than ever in history, we face challenges in balancing the needs of all the people who use them, while protecting their special character, heritage and environment .

“As our aging network faces increased pressure from government funding cuts and damage caused by climate change, it is more important than ever that we secure third-party investment to keep these much-loved spaces open and accessible.

“Our canal treatment pathways are perfectly placed to play a key role in delivering the government’s aim to give everyone access to local quality blue and green space.”

The Church mural is accessed from Bridge Street, where Super Slow Way has also created a pocket park with artist Rebecca Chesney and community members. In preparation for the mural’s launch, the Hyndburn Towpath Taskforce has been working to improve the stretch of canal towpath from the pocket park to the mural.

“We fixed all the potholes and did a lot of maintenance,” Sharples said. “We spent half a dozen sessions fixing the towpath so it was better for mums with prams and people in wheelchairs who want to come and look at it. It was difficult because the distance from our van to the farthest point of the painting was very long, with wheelbarrows of materials. But it was worth it.”

Sharples said he would eventually like to see the entire stretch of towpaths through Hyndburn cleared and accessible to all.

“There are some parts that we can’t tackle as volunteers because it needs construction materials and in some cases they are quite far between two access points. They are quite long stretches and it is not physically possible for us to get close enough with all the tools and materials we need. We’re a small team and we can only do so much.”

The Canal and Rivers Trust hopes that by setting out its Towpaths for Everyone policy it can attract increased investment and strengthen partnerships to ensure this happens.

With contributions from The Super Slow Way and the Towpath Taskforce, Hyndburn is a good example of partnership working to improve canal sides, though. Kershaw shares Sharples’ ambition to see the entire section of the canal through Hyndburn made accessible as part of Super Slow Way’s wider vision to transform the entire 20-mile stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal under its remit into a linear park.

“The project is about community-led regeneration and some of these projects will be big infrastructure projects, but some of them will be small interventions that improve the environment for people, make it valuable and allow people to celebrate and value what is there.” Kershaw said. “It’s partly about social justice and everyone having a right to a pleasant environment.

But it will also bring economic development, jobs and money, which is fundamental to changing the fortunes of these areas that have been really neglected for decades.”

Artist commissions such as the Church mural and the pocket park are one aspect of the project, while large architectural interventions will bring the canal side structures into community use.

Funding for the project is a patchwork, Kershaw said, with small projects being funded through The Super Slow Way grants and large projects being the responsibility of individual councils to bid.

In Blackburn the council has acquired Imperial Mill, while across the canal the Nelson Brierfield Gas Tower is set to become a community asset. However, in Hyndburn, plans to regenerate the Hargreaves warehouse in Church stalled following a fire at the site in 2022.

But Kershaw says that while the big projects aren’t as far away in Hyndburn, the small interventions of the pocket park and painting, as well as improvements made by the Towpath Taskforce, mean more has been done to improve the canal’s edge for residents in time immediate.

Achieving this vision, she believes, is fundamental to the Hyndburn communities.

“Psychologically, it will allow people to value their space, highlight spaces that people already value and bring people from outside to see them. It changes the way people feel about their space, so I think these small changes can be really transformative.”

www.facebook.com/Hyndburn TowpathTaskforce) or email barbara. [email protected]