2026 marks the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust, which led the fight to save this remarkable waterway from oblivion. There will be a series of community events to celebrate this anniversary of the canal’s restoration and its lasting impact on all who live and work along it, volunteer, and enjoy it.
After the decline in commercial traffic following the Second World War, the canal fell into neglect – polluted, silted, and choked with weeds. Locks collapsed, water levels dropped, and in places it became little more than a dumping ground for shopping trolleys and bicycles.
Local boaters and residents began the long campaign to rescue it, and after decades of effort and millions of volunteer hours, Queen Elizabeth II reopened the canal on 8 August 1990.
Today, it stands not only as a restored waterway, but as a living corridor of nature, heritage, and community – woven into the daily lives of thousands of people who live, work, and volunteer along it, and many more who walk, cycle, fish, and boat its length each year.In today’s increasingly isolated and frenetic world, people are seeking out nature, well-being and a stronger sense of local connection. Canals offer a unique space and slower rhythm – an opportunity to pause and reconnect. They bring us closer to nature, to ourselves, and to each other. Step off a busy street onto a towpath and the noise falls away, replaced by water, wind, and birdsong. This is a landscape alive with herons, kingfishers, swans, otters, water voles, barn owls, rare horseshoe bats, and dragonflies. Walkers pass moored narrowboats, exchanging greetings with residents who live along the water’s edge.
The Trust’s eleven boats offer families and community groups a peaceful escape from the demands of everyday life, while also providing day trips and holiday hire opportunities for people with disabilities, and helping young people develop boating skills and confidence on the water.
Plans for the future include transforming the Trust’s historic headquarters at Devizes Wharf into a community hub, alongside improvements to visitor facilities and expanded work with schools and families at key sites such as Crofton Pumping Station, home to the world’s oldest working beam engine. The Trust is also investing in more sustainable, electrically powered boats to help ensure the canal can be enjoyed for generations to come.
Graham Puddephatt, Chair of Trustees, commented, “The Trust has achieved everything it has over the last 75 years by engaging the communities that live along its 87-mile length. We will continue to do this, ensuring that new generations understand the importance of the canal to our lives and well-being.
We invite everyone who values the canal to take part in a series of events held along its length, brought together by our accessible boat Hannah, travelling from Bristol to Reading. The journey commemorates Timothy West and Prunella Scales, who were the first to travel the full length of the canal when it reopened in 1990, and who served as Vice Presidents of the Trust for many years.”
The celebrations will culminate at Reading Waterfest on Saturday 27 June. More information can be found here.
Events taking place along the canal include:
- A summer fair at Devizes on 6 June
- The Great Devizes Descent, setting a passenger number record on the Caen Hill flight of locks on 7 June
- A send-off from Bristol Floating Harbour on 11 June
- A 1950s-themed fair at Bradford on Avon on 14 June
- Steaming days at Crofton Beam Engines on 20/21 June
- A midsummer fete at Great Bedwyn on 21 June
- A grand arrival at Reading Waterfest on 27 June
Textiles and Stitch Around Marlborough celebrate 50 years with a Golden Exhibition
