Wendover Arm of GUC restoration.

1999. Preparing the footings for the wall on the north side (towpath side) of the canal. View looking west from Little Tring bridge.

May 1999. Preparing the footings for the wall on the north side (towpath side) of the canal. View looking west from the south (non-towpath) side.

May 1999. Preparing the footings for the wall on the north side (towpath side) of the canal. View looking east from the south (non-towpath) side. Little Tring bridge is at about 2 o'clock and filled in. Since this picture was taken the re-building of the bridge started in summer 2000 and was due to be finished by the end of that year.

May 1999. In this section, to the west of the previous picture, the base and footings have been layed. Re-inforcing has been embedded and the structure awaits the forms for pouring the walls.

It is necessary to build walls on both sides of the channel in this section to prevent leakage. The base of the channel will covered with a butyl rubber sheet or puddled with clay. As explained elsewhere, the reason for the closure of the Wendover Arm was because of excessive leakage through the porous chalk. The Arm was supposed to have been a source of water for the summit, bringing water from springs along its length and by pumping from Halton reservoir.

The canal is still used as a source of water, but to overcome the leakage problem the water level was lowered between Wendover and Aston Clinton and a culvert built under the canal bed between there and Little Tring pumping station. Water is still pumped from Halton (Weston Turville) reservoir into the canal.

Jan 6 2001. A section of the completed retaining wall on the north bank. Apart from a short section near the bridge, this side of the wall is now complete.

Jan 6 2001. View from Tringford pumping station towards the new Little Tring bridge. The stop lock in the foreground is the present limit of navigation on the Wendover Arm.

Jan 6 2001. View from the west of the new Little Tring bridge. The previous original bridge having been demolished and infilled during the sixties. The rebuilding of the bridge is financed by the Wendover Arm Trust and project managed by British Waterways.