08 March, 2002

As millions plan their summer holidays, John Sheard wonders how a week of backbreaking work in mud, water and rubble would suit.

AFTER a wet and miserable winter - I reckon it has rained virtually non-stop since November 1 - millions of British people are now planning their summer holidays. Ah, what pleasure!

But if you are fed up with the Costa del Grot, or fish and chips and dodgem cars at the British seaside, how does this sound: a week of back breaking labour, up to the neck in mud and stagnant water, and accommodation that provides breakfast - but you have to take your own bed?

I must be mad to suggest it, I suppose. But hundreds or people do just this every year because they have a deep love of one of the unsung jewels of our countryside: the canal system.

Back in the 1950s and 60s, we nearly lost our canals altogether because Ministry of Transport officials wanted to fill them in and make them into roads, thus destroying more than 200 years of our industrial heritage.

At the time, many of them were stagnant marine rubbish dumps and not many people would have missed them. They were saved however, by the intervention of then transport minister "Red Babs" Barbara Castle who, as MP for Blackburn, spent some of her weekends boating on the Leeds-Liverpool canal.

Then, in great British tradition, the amateurs moved in, raised an outcry about the neglect of these historic assets, and - against official opposition - began restoring lengths of canal and re-building locks and bridges.

The work of those early pioneers means that we now have more than 2,000 of working inland waterways, vital linear parks for boating, fishing, towpath walking and an absolute boon to wildlife in often heavily built-up urban areas.

In Craven, the Leeds-Liverpool is now a major tourist attraction. The Lancaster canal, after 200 years, has finally linked up with the rest of the national system via the River Ribble at Preston and there are hopes of restoring its full length to Kendal. Similarly, the old Huddersfield canal is back in use across the Pennines.

But there is still much work to do on derelict lengths of the system - and that's where the Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) comes into play. They need people willing to pay - admittedly small amounts - to work. And work hard.

In return, they offer a lot of fun, a chance to learn new skills, and the immense satisfaction bringing back from the dead the ghosts of the past who built the Industrial Revolution long before the railway engine was invented.

The WRG is organising work camps throughout the summer all over England and Wales. The work includes anything from basic navying to driving dumper trucks, brick-laying and some skilled engineering.

You get basic accommodation - with essential showers - in places like village halls and social centres but, unless you want to sleep on the floor, you should take a camp bed. The good news is that these "holidays" are dirt cheap (pun intended), usually from £35 a week.

You will need some beer money, too, because - I am reliably informed - local hostelries do a good trade of an evening with people who have spent the day slopping and sweating in the mud!

For more info, log onto www.wrg.org.uk