Volunteers plan to restore lost canal route in Malswick

Ralph Barber hopes the restoration project will be completed within the next two years

Volunteers are working to restore an old canal route after securing planning permission.

The section of canal at Malswick near Newent in Gloucestershire is being developed by the Hereford & Gloucester Canal Trust.

The waterway was removed to make way for the Ledbury and Gloucester Railway, known as the Daffodil Line, which operated between 1885 and 1964.

Trust members hope to complete the restoration within the next two years.

A section of canal is being restored at Malswick near Newent in Gloucestershire

The project includes restoring river bridges, creating towpaths and planting wildlife corridors along the route of the canal, which runs from the A40 at Over, towards Hereford.

The route will go through two sections of woodland and the trust will work with local wildlife groups and carry out a survey to minimise disruption to animals.

Trust chairman, Ralph Barber, said: "The current channel will turn into the canal eventually.

"It goes up towards a football ground and then...through the next field, past a lock and under the road towards Gloucester."

Country park

He added that the area would make a pleasant walking route when all the work was completed.

"Over the next period of time we'll be opening the area up as a country park.

"People will then have a very nice stretch where they can walk on both sides of the canal and it will be a very nice walk.

"Eventually, this particular site will also have a number of kilometres of hedging to improve wildlife," said Mr Barber.

The daffodil line, which had stops at Newent and Malswick, closed to passengers in 1959 but remained operation to goods traffic for another five years.