Pocklington Progress

East Yorkshire’s Pocklington Canal restoration has been rather a ‘stop / go’ project over the years. But now things are finally coming together, with a reopening in prospect.

- Martin Ludgate

“Just about the easiest restoration in the country” is how Paul Waddington describes the canal which links the Yorkshire Derwent to the East Riding town of Pocklington. This may come as a bit of surprise, given that canal restoration groups like the Pocklington Canal Amenity Society (which he chairs) often feel the need to list the major challenges facing their reopening plans, by way of explaining why our readers won’t be cruising through the newly restored waterway for some years yet.

But he has a good point: the Pocklington Canal was never officially abandoned; has no major obstacles such as lowered bridges; hasn’t been filled in or built on anywhere; its lock chambers survived in a condition where they could be repaired rather than completely rebuilt; and over half of the modest nine mile length has already been reopened.

So if it’s that easy, why has it taken almost five decades to get this far? And how can we be sure that it won’t take another five to complete it? To get an idea of the reasons, let’s delve back into the restoration’s history…

And it’s been a rather stop / go kind of history. Following a successful campaign in 1959 supported by the Inland Waterways Association to prevent the canal (which had lain unused since the 1930s) from being filled in with sewage sludge, PCAS was formed in 1969. Local farmer Eric Lount saw a piece on television about the Operation Ashton ‘big dig’ volunteer working party, part of the Cheshire Ring campaign which was in full swing at the time, and contacted other local waterway supporters with a view to getting something similar going on the Pocklington.