Bosley canal breach – three months to fix

The breached section of the Macclesfield Canal near Bosley could take up to 12 weeks to fix.

Social media users uploaded dramatic videos from Friday 28 March and over the following days that showed the towpath next to a stretch of canal appearing to be undermined by a leak which was flooding a nearby farmer’s field.

Subsequent videos showed the towpath having been washed away and the canal emptied down to the canal bed, with “stop planks” installed at each end of the section to retain water within the neighbouring sections and keep narrowboats afloat.

The Canal and River Trust (CRT) attended the scene on Friday 28 March, issuing a statement on 31 March.

The statement said its teams had “worked to install stop planks at Bridge 51 (Cowley Bridge) and Bridge 53 (Locketts Bridge). We also assisted in moving all boats from the affected area”.

In its prognosis of the damage, the CRT said the leak formed between the bed of the canal and a culvert which worsened over the course of the weekend and caused “significant damage”.

“The towpath and canal bed were washed away, leaving a substantial hole in the canal wall and towpath,” the charity said.

“(On Monday 31 March), our teams have been on-site assessing the damage and arranging a fish rescue. The Navigation and towpath will remain closed until further notice.

“We are also working to restore canal water levels on either side of the affected area, which we expect to take a several days.”

A Canal & River Trust senior engineer said engineers are working on a plan to fix the canal, and said the charity needed support to protect canals.

“Unfortunately, there has been a breach on the Macclesfield Canal near Bosley due to a leak in the canal bed,” the spokesperson said.

“Our charity’s emergency team worked late into the night to help move around 15 boats away from the breach and installed stop planks to prevent any further loss of water.

“We’re carrying out a fish rescue and are working to restore water levels on either side of the affected area, which we expect to take several days.

“Our engineers have visited the site, reviewed the damage, and are planning repairs, with initial findings indicating a substantial repair will take up 12 weeks. We will provide further updates on our website, with our next update scheduled on or before Friday 11 April.

“We have closed the towpath and navigation and are contacting boaters moored in the affected area. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience. We’re asking everyone to stay safe and keep away from the breach site until the repairs are complete.

“This, unfortunately, is another illustration of the challenges facing our nation’s 250-year-old canal network.

“We’re asking people to support our work, either through a donation, volunteering, or spreading the word about how important it is to keep canals alive.”

Narrowboat user Emma Culshaw Bell uploaded videos to TikTok showing the incident unfolding. One of the videos has been viewed more than 1.3M times.

Bell spoke to NCE and said one of the videos she recorded was before the canal towpath collapsed.

“You can see the canal water being sucked into a hole and then I panned across and where I focused in you can see the body of water which was depositing into the farmer’s field,” she said.

She also said she thought the CRT had some difficulty installing the stop planks because of silt build-up and the fact they hadn’t been used for years.

However, she praised CRT, saying: “We were all extremely satisfied with CRT’s response. There’s absolutely no criticism.”