Weed cutting on the Wilts & Berks Canal
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Weed cutting on the Wilts & Berks Canal by Vieve Forward as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Weed cutting on the Wilts & Berks Canal
Image: © Vieve Forward Taken: 18 Nov 2015
Volunteers from the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust http://www.wbct.org.uk/ removing weed from the canal. The man in the front of the boat operates the weed-cutter, a kind of underwater hedge-trimmer. When the weed has been cut free of its roots, the men on the towpath throw out large wooden rakes with 6" nails for tines which float on the water and drag the weed towards the bank. The piles of weed on the bank are then pitchforked out of sight in the hedge. When the canal was in use, the frequent passage of boats would have kept the canal free of weed, but as boats are not in use on this short stretch of canal, weed-cutting has to take place annually.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.53442
Longitude
-1.885625