Robin Evans (Chief Executive) Tony Hales (Chairman)
Revenue
£176,500,000 (2010/11)
Total assets
£676,900,000 (2010/11)
Owner
UK Government
Number of employees
2,000
Parent
DEFRA
Website
britishwaterways.co.uk
British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotland and Wales.[2]
On 2 July 2012, all of British Waterways' assets and responsibilities in England and Wales were transferred to the newly founded charity the Canal & River Trust.[3][4] In Scotland, British Waterways continues to operate as a standalone public corporation under the trading name Scottish Canals.
The British Waterways Board was initially established as a result of the Transport Act 1962 and took control of the inland waterways assets of the British Transport Commission in 1963. By the final years of its existence, British Waterways was sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in England and Wales, and by the Scottish Government in Scotland.[5]
British Waterways managed and maintained 2,200 miles (3,541 km)[6] of canals, rivers and docks within the United Kingdom including the buildings, structures and landscapes alongside these waterways. Half of the United Kingdom population lives within five miles of a canal or river once managed by British Waterways.[7][8] In addition to the watercourses, British Waterways also cared for and owned 2,555 listed structures[9] including seventy scheduled monuments.[9] A further 800 areas have special designation and a further hundred are Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
Through its charitable arm The Waterways Trust, British Waterways maintained a museum of its history at the National Waterways Museum's three sites at Gloucester Docks, Stoke Bruerne and Ellesmere Port. Since the transfer of the assets and responsibilities of British Waterways to the Canal & River Trust, The Waterways Trust in England and Wales has merged with the Canal & River Trust. It continues, however, as an independent charity in Scotland.[10]
^Waterways World, December 2011 issue, Article on Canal and River Trust logo
^The Committee Office, House of Commons. "House of Commons – Public Accounts – Forty-Second Report". Parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
^"Thank you everyone – Canal & River Trust". canalrivertrust.org.uk. Archived from the original on 6 July 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
^"Governance – Civil Society". civilsociety.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
^"About Us". BritishWaterways.co.uk. Archived from the original on 27 November 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2008.
^"British Waterways home page". Britishwaterways.co.uk. 24 March 2010. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
^"British Waterways leisure site". Waterscape.com. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
^British Waterways London Quarterly Newsletter, Summer 2007 Archived 27 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
^ abBritish Waterways Heritage Archived 5 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^"British Waterways". Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
control of the inland waterways assets of the British Transport Commission in 1963. By the final years of its existence, BritishWaterways was sponsored by...
2023-07-19. Look up waterway in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikivoyage has travel information for Waterways. Media related to Waterways at Wikimedia Commons...
Transport Act 1968 required the BritishWaterways Board to keep commercial waterways fit for commercial use, and cruising waterways fit for cruising. However...
Intracoastal Waterway Okeechobee Waterway Point Pleasant Canal Lewes and Rehoboth Canal Inland waterways of the United States Waterways forming and crossings...
Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by BritishWaterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, the Scottish...
Creek, British Columbia. In 1909 a charter was granted to the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway (A&GW) to build from Edmonton to Waterways, Alberta...
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing...
unlicensed boats kept in private moorings or on other waterways in 2006. Most boats on CRT waterways are steel (or occasionally, aluminium) cruisers popularly...
by the state-owned BritishWaterways. Reflecting the decline in the use of canals and rivers for freight distribution, waterways were divided into three...
ISBN 978-1-85459-879-0. Great Canal Journeys: A Lifetime of Memories on Britain's Most Beautiful Waterways, 2017, ISBN 978-1-78606-511-7. Pru and Me: The Amazing Marriage...
Ownership passed to the Ministry of Transport in 1920, and then to BritishWaterways in 1962. Improvements were made, with the locks being mechanised between...
000 m2) site following the transfer of all the assets of BritishWaterways in 2012. BritishWaterways had previously acquired the site from the Port of London...
Inland Waterways Association (IWA), at a time when the waterways network was largely derelict. Today, the Canal & River Trust—formerly BritishWaterways—has...
1910. p. 383. "Caledonian Canal". Canals and rivers – Waterscape. BritishWaterways. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012. "The Loch Ness Centre"...
control transferring to the British Transport Commission, and in 1962 to the BritishWaterways Board, later BritishWaterways. Commercial traffic continued...
(Screen One, BBC 1991) by Alan Bennett (for which she was nominated for a British Academy Television Award) and appeared in the documentary series Great...
boating. United Kingdom portal Transport portal BritishWaterways Waterscape Canal & River Trust Inland Waterways Association Falkirk Helix Geography of the...
Wonders of the Waterways". Jim Shead. Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2011. These seven wonders of the waterways are as listed...
(50 km) BritishWaterways was founded in 1962 under the Transport Act, taking over statutory responsibility for operating and maintaining waterways across...
secretary to the pioneering canals conservation organisation the Inland Waterways Association. There she met and collaborated with Robert Aickman. She described...
maintain towpaths for use by anyone, however, some ten years later BritishWaterways started to relax the rule that a permit was required to give access...
the Waterways Trust, the Inland Waterways Association, the Anderton Boat Lift Trust, the Friends of Anderton Boat Lift, the Association of Waterways Cruising...
"Canalway Cavalcade: 2nd–4th May 2015". Waterways.org.uk, Accessed 5 November 2014 "Paddington: Maida Vale". British History Online: A History of the County...
also engages with BritishWaterways on restoring the navigability of the River Leven. SIWA has strong links with the Inland Waterways Association Ireland...
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948...
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