Maidenhead Waterways

The Maidenhead Waterways are a system of canals in Maidenhead, England. Currently disused, plans to restore and upgrade them were announced in 2011. The works would initially make the waterways navigable by small craft, and ultimately by narrow boats.

Long before today's pound locks were built on the main River Thames, the old waterways were controlled by 'flash locks', consisting of sluices or weirs with removable sections. Barges are believed to have once operated from wharves on both the main river and its side channels. Today the York Stream channel in the centre of Maidenhead is narrow/shallow and prone to dry out at times of low flow on the main River Thames that feeds it. The adjoining Moor Cut channel is permanently 'dry', yet the signs for "Willow Wharf" can still be seen on the channel wall by the Police station at Town Moor.

The channel which crosses Town Moor was enlarged in the 1960s as part of the then flood defence system, long before the Jubilee River was built. The two channels rejoin at Green Lane and from there the waterway running down to the Thames is 45 to 50 feet (14 to 15 m) wide, but overgrown and partly silted up. Channel clearance work over the last few years by volunteers and the Environment Agency has removed most of the tree blockages and it is already usable by canoes and rowing boats.

The stream connects to the River Thames and retains public navigation rights, though it became impractical for boats to pass through the town sections as they became silted up and overgrown.

The old channel leaves the Thames just above Cliveden and eventually rejoins it just below Bray Lock by the Marina.

By October 2008, a long-term renewal scheme was in progress, aiming to restore and upgrade the old waterways and allow boats into the centre of Maidenhead. The Maidenhead Waterways Group (MW) was founded in 2006, and became a charity and private company limited by guarantee in March 2007, with the aim of restoring the waterways to a navigable standard, allowing small boats to travel into and around the town centre 'ring'. A lock and weir at Green Lane would raise and stabilise water levels in the town centre channels and refill the dry Moor Cut channel of the waterway.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead set up the Partnership for the Rejuvenation of Maidenhead (PRoM) in 2006, which developed and proposed a 20 Year Vision and Action Plan for rejuvenating the town centre. This led to development of a comprehensive Area Action Plan which after successive consultations was adopted in 2011. It sees the restored waterway as one of the defining projects which will help improve and shape the identity of the town for the future.

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Wikipedia