Facts & Figures
1. Wales and Border Counties waterways manage and care for:
- 300 miles (187.5km) of Rivers and Waterways
- 560 Bridges
- 198 Locks
- 612 Listed Buildings
- 6 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs)
- 87 Aqueducts
- 6 Reservoirs
- 10 Tunnels
2. The waterways we operate include :
- River Weaver
- Montgomery Canal
- Llangollen Canal
- Shropshire Union Canal
- Trent & Mersey Canal
- Macclesfield Canal
- Caldon Canal
- Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal
- Swansea Canal
3. We care for 720 miles (450km) of waterways, of which approximately half are in England and half in Wales.
4. Our annual expenditure is £18 million. This is covered by earned income of just over
£11million (of which £6 million is third party funding). This is topped up by a grant from Defra of £7million. We are one of 10 business units within British Waterways.
5. We are the largest waterway unit in the country, in terms of linear mileage and includes the country's busiest canal - the Llangollen Canal.
6. 25 hire boat companies operate within the Wales and Border Counties area, of which a third are situated on the Llangollen.
7. We cover a largely rural patch, with only 5% of our waterways classed as urban.
8. Anderton Boat Lift, near Northwich, is England's only working boat lift. Dating back to 1875, it was the prototype for boat lifts in Belgium, France and Canada. It lay derelict for nearly two decades before a £7million restoration scheme brought it back to life in 2002.
9. We have around 170 permanent members of staff.
10. The restoration of the Anderton Boat Lift formed part of a wider British Waterways £200 million restoration programme.