Narrowboats Trapped for Weeks After Dramatic Canal Collapse
Two deserted narrowboats remain stuck in the mud of a drained canal in Shropshire, weeks after a dramatic embankment collapse created a massive sinkhole. The boats are stranded at the bottom of the breach, with a complex winching operation to free them due to begin later this week.
This follows an incident in the early hours of December 22, when a section of the Llangollen Canal in the Chemistry area of Whitchurch gave way. Fire crews were called at 4.22am as a crater roughly 50 metres by 50 metres began to form, draining the water and declaring a major incident.
Rescue and Recovery Efforts Underway
Firefighters helped around 12 people to safety from three narrowboats that were caught in the suddenly emptying canal. Two of the vessels fell into the hole and remain on the canal bed, while a third, named the Pacemaker, was left teetering precariously on the edge with its stern over the gap.
Waterways engineers from the Canal & River Trust have since successfully refloated the Pacemaker in a delicate operation. The craft was pulled underneath a movable footbridge and refloated inside a temporary dam, a process that took over an hour to refill with water.
The boat's owner, Paul Stowe, described being woken at around 4.05am and seeing a "gaping hole" appear underneath. He rescued his cats as the situation rapidly deteriorated. "When it actually happened I looked over the stern of the boat and within 20 minutes this went from nothing to an enormous hole in the ground," Mr Stowe told the Press Association. "It was almost like an implosion."
Long Road to Rebuilding the Canal
The Trust's chief operating officer, Julie Sharman, acknowledged the distress caused to the boaters and local community. While the immediate focus has been on recovering the vessels, the longer-term task is rebuilding the canal itself, which will be a "long and expensive job."
Teams are currently ensuring pipes and pumps maintain water flow around the breach site to keep boats downstream on the Llangollen Canal afloat. The Trust has stated it is still investigating the cause of the breach, noting that earth embankment failures can involve multiple factors. A summary of their findings is expected to be made public in the coming weeks.
For now, the sight of the two stranded narrowboats serves as a stark reminder of the sudden collapse, with their owners awaiting the moment they can be recovered and, eventually, return to the water.
