A HUGE 12-ton barge momentarily hovered above the Wilts and Berks Canal before being gracefully lowered into the historic waterway.
Contractors from Surrey-based London Water have started work on a two-day project to clear 180 cubic metres of sand and silt from the canal bottom near Mill lane in Swindon's Front Garden area.
The material was washed into the canal from a Thames Water outfall pipe about a year and a half ago, when the newly restored one-mile stretch of canal was filled with water.
The barge technically a dumb barge or mud hopper was lifted from the back of a flat bed truck by crane before being lowered onto the water.
Wilts and Berks Canal Trust chairman Henry Smith, who was watching the action, explained that the barge would be manoeuvred by a tugboat as it is filled with silt by a dredger.
The sand and silt will then be deposited alongside the canal and spread out on farmland.
Mr Smith said: "The aim is to eventually restore the whole of the Wilts and Berks canal and then to link it with the rest of the canal network. We hope to achieve this within 10 years."
The 12 branches of the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust have worked to restore a number of sections of the 52-mile canal including a stretch at Wootton Bassett and Lyneham.
Funding for the registered charity has come from number of sources including property companies, who see the canal as increasing the value of nearby homes, and the Heritage Lottery Fund, and now stands at more than £100,000.
The Wilts and Berks Canal was proposed in 1793 as a cheap way of transporting coal from Somerset to Swindon.
Opened in 1810, the canal ran 52 miles from Semington to Abingdon, providing a link from the Kennet and Avon Canal to the River Thames Navigation.
The waterway's heyday was in the 1830s, when it supplied materials for the Great Western Railway, but gradually it fell into decline. In 1901, when a section of the Stanley aqueduct near Chippenham collapsed, the route became impassable.
The canal was abandoned following an Act of Parliament in 1914.
The Swindon Branch of the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 7.30pm at The Kings Arms, Wood Street, Old Town.
New Members are always welcome and annual membership costs £10 per person, £15 for a family or £5 for pensioners.
For more information contact Swindon Branch chairman Henry Smith on 07881 626775.
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