Cotswold Canals Trust is celebrating a milestone this year: it’s 50 years since a small group of enthusiastic volunteers came together with the shared mission to restore the Cotswold Canals, and the team at the charity has a bumper year of events planned to celebrate.
The first fundraising date for your diary is the CanAmble on Sunday, May 1st. For the 7.5 mile sponsored walk, registered walkers will gather at Wallbridge in Stroud between 10am and 11am before striding out along the towpath towards Sapperton.
The CanAmble revives the much-loved sponsored walk that raised essential funds in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and Mike and Beryl Ayland, founding members of the Cotswold Canals Trust, will signal the start of the event. The trail winds along the beautiful stretch of canal from Wallbridge to the Daneway at Sapperton, and walkers will have the opportunity to see some of the Trust’s work along the way.
There will be plenty of ways for walkers to keep up their strength on the day, with the Lock Keeper’s Café offering hot drinks and breakfasts to get them off to a good start, Stroud Brewery acting as a welcome pitstop after a couple of miles, and the Daneway in Sapperton providing a fitting venue for triumphant finishers – you can even pre-order a pint and a lunchbox to be waiting for you when you arrive.
Registration costs £20 per person, which includes an exclusive CanAmble 2022 T-shirt, and participants are encouraged to raise additional money through sponsorship or donations. Under 16s go free and T-shirts are available for purchase for young walkers.
Cotswold Canals Trust chair Jim White explains, “To secure the future of our Cotswold Canals and work towards our vision of restoration and reunification of our canals with the national network, we need to continue to raise funds; just as an indicator of the figures required, it costs around £360,000 to restore one lock… and there are dozens of these along each of our canals.”
Free bus transport is available but must be booked ahead of the event; places are limited.
To register to take part, visit CanAmble 2022 – Cotswold Canals Trust.
