Restoration work has started at the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust’s new site at Over!
The view, looking towards Hereford (!), onto the Vineyard Hill site from the end of the existing Over Basin.
Having taken most of the Trust’s legal services in house we can now move very rapidly! Indeed it is a sign of how much is currently happening that we now have the support of someone full time just on legal matters and negotiations, a resource that sees a major change in the H&G CT moving forward. After lengthy negotiations the previous owners, the Vineyard Trust, voted in favour of selling the land adjoining Over Basin to the H&G CT for a nominal sum.
The view, looking towards Hereford (!), onto the Vineyard Hill site from the end of the existing Over Basin.
Wilf Jones agreed to be Project Chairman of this site and Ted Beagles took up the role of Site Manager. Not only does this site add to our current showpiece length at Over, more than doubling it, but it is also acts as a model of how we will set up and run sites in the future.
Work commenced at the start of September. Visitors to the Over Canal Festival on 3rd and 4th September were given guided tours of the new site.
A good response has been received to our request for volunteers to help clear the land and prepare it for the canal to be restored. Just like the Over site before it, the Vineyard Hill Project has a legal deadline and the Canal will be officially opened at the September 2012 Canal Festival. It has been agreed that the work must be completed within 12 months, but already significant progress has been made to keep us on schedule!
More details were published in Edition 110 of The Wharfinger.
