Waterway Restoration in The United Kingdom
Due to competition from the railways and the narrow design of most UK canals (which prevented the carriage of economically sized bulk loads), large parts of the UK's canal system were abandoned in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The rise of the leisure industry in the 1950s meant that the complete abandonment of the remaining canals was avoided.
The increasing use of canals for leisure purposes led some people to consider restoring some of those that had been abandoned. At first, progress was slow due to the lack of funding, with most of the work having to be done manually by volunteers.
As the leisure industry grew, the economic benefits of having a canal became more apparent and some state funding started to appear. At the same time public interest increased the size of various volunteer groups.
At the present time, canal restoration in the UK is carried out by a mixture of volunteers and professionals working on a large variety of projects.
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