Volunteering Opportunities with Basingstoke Canal Society

About

The Basingstoke Canal was completed in 1794, built to connect Basingstoke with the River Thames at Weybridge via the Wey. By the early 1960s, the Basingstoke Canal was still in private ownership and semi-derelict, so half a dozen people formed the Society. By 1966, a campaign was started for the Canal to be taken into public ownership and restored to navigation. The Society was originally formed in 1966 to save the privately owned waterway, and campaigned for its restoration under public ownership. This was achieved in the early 1970s when Hampshire and Surrey County Councils purchased the then derelict canal. In partnership with the local authorities, the Society organised voluntary working parties, managed work training schemes and employed a full-time team to restore the Canal. After nearly 20 years effort, thirty two miles of the waterway, from the Wey Navigation junction to the Greywell Tunnel, were formally reopened in May 1991 by HRH The Duke of Kent. The Canal is now managed by the Basingstoke Canal Authority, and is financed by the two county council owners and neighbouring borough and district authorities, with a significant contribution of both cash and value-in-kind from the Society. Basingstoke Canal Society promotes and campaigns for the sustainable future of the Canal as a navigation, and also raises money to fund maintenance and improvement works undertaken by Society volunteers. We have over 200 volunteers doing a variety of jobs.