Yorkshire canal volunteers share stories of working on the waterways

The teams help maintain the areas alongside canals, including towpaths and hedgerows

Volunteers who give up their time to care for canals in West Yorkshire have shared their stories, as a charity appeals for more enthusiasts to join the cause.

The Canal & River Trust, which looks after waterways in England and Wales, wants to attract more people to help care for the nation's historic canals and the wildlife habitats along them.

The volunteers help maintain the locks, towpaths, hedgerows and flowerbeds which run alongside.

Rachel Clapham works as a towpath ranger on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

She is also a lead volunteer in the Garden Party, a horticultural team which works to improve the areas between Apperley Bridge and Bingley Five Rise locks.

Rachel Clapham from Baildon is a volunteer towpath ranger

"Once a week we plant bulbs, we rejuvenate areas with wild flowers, we grow edibles that anybody passing by can help themselves to," she says.

"We have been going since about April, we are quite a new team. It's quite flexible, people can come when they can.

"There is an average of about eight of us but people come as and when they want to."

"I just love doing it," she says. "I was lucky enough to take early retirement when I was 55, and I just wanted something to do.

"It's just being out there next to the water, with the wildlife, it's the release, it is just so lovely.

"Just to be part of preserving that environment for everybody, it is quite rewarding."

Sandra Harrison works for two mornings each week as a volunteer lead at Salterhebble, on the Calder and Hebble Navigation.

A horticultural team called the Garden Party look after flower beds along the canals

Sandra Harrison said: "We know we are really valued in what we do."

"I absolutely love coming here, I love the outdoors," she says. "We know we are really valued in what we do.

"We are volunteer lockkeepers too and in the summer we have lots of boats coming through.

"We would just love more and more volunteers to come along because we are an absolutely great team, we all get along really well."

Peter Surtees, a member of her team, says: "If we weren't doing this, then gradually over a period of time, the towpaths and waterways would deteriorate, and people wouldn't get the benefit."

Volunteers meet up and work in all sorts of roles, Rachel Clapham says

Peter Faulkner has volunteered at Salterhebble since November last year.

He says: "I had just finished work after some difficulties with stress and depression, and I wanted to get back into the world of people.

"The physical work has been really good, it's got me a lot better and I've benefitted from the friendship of the people I've been working with."

Ms Clapham, from Baildon, urged anyone interested to "have a go", saying: "There is no commitment, you can just try it and see if you like it.

"There are volunteer welcome sessions, they can come along to one of these sessions and meet volunteers and sign up on the website and try it."

Ian Kelshaw has volunteered at Standedge Tunnel for several years

Christine Mellor, head of volunteering at the Canal & River Trust, said: "With volunteers' support, donating their time, knowledge, and skills, we are better able to keep our canals available for nature and wildlife and for communities to benefit from.

"The ageing canal network, coupled with the challenges of extreme weather events and recently announced future cuts in government funding, demands our call-out for all hands on deck and, if you are interested and thinking of joining us, our message is 'your canal needs you'."