I want my Canal back!

During our original crowdfunding campaign, we successfully raised £4,135 thanks to 46 wonderful supporters. We are now continuing to accept donations to enable us to keep benefiting the local communities who live along the canal. Find out more about our original plans below.

To restore the Derby & Sandiacre Canal as near to the original route as possible in order to promote wellbeing for the local communities who use it, to conserve and enhance the ecosystems within it and spread economic development throughout the restoration process and into the future.

We're a bunch of passionate individuals from a range of backgrounds from business, engineering, ecology to farming and banking. We've been striving to restore the canal since 1993. Conditions weren't right back then although the canal route has always been protected through planning but now there is a better understanding of the benefits of green spaces and waterways to our everyday lives. 

What do we stand for?

We believe that canals can improve lives; Through the wildlife they support, through the way the act as a green artery from the open countryside through the suburbs and into our cities, through the jobs they create through tourism and restoration. 

Restoration isn't an end on its own but it brings many benefits too; It supports traditional skills such as hedgelaying and stone masonry, it harbours an adventurous spirit in order to overcome the many infrastructure challenges we face getting over, under and around road and rail networks and it encourages volunteering, helping old and young alike to be active and give back to their community.

Who are we?

We're a Registered Charity and a Company Limited by Guarantee. We have a board of trustees drawn from the volunteer body who have expressed a desire to promote the Derby Canal restoration and who have been recognised by the Trustee Board as trustworthy people who can assist the Trust’s objectives.

Our Key stakeholders  are the four Local Authorities through which the Derby Canal ran and The Inland Waterways Association, the organisation responsible for championing canal preservation and restoration. Each organisation can appoint two trustees.  There is also the Derby & Sandiacre Canal Society which is made up of members and is overseen by a committee.

What we need £4312 for right now

In July 2018 a group of dedicated volunteers and staff from the Waterway Recovery Group (WRG)as well as our own volunteers will be getting stuck in for a solid week of work on the Borrowash Lock. Works include restoring the old stone gabions, some of which weigh several tons, and placing them back where they came from along the edge of the lock. The costs include hire of scaffolding, a mini-digger and a crane to lift those enormous stones. We plan to hold a public open day where members of the community can come along and hear all about the work in progress and pledgees to this Crowdfunder can get exclusive access on this day as well as a slap up lunch with the WRGgies (volunteers with the WRG), (see Rewards for more details about this).