A narrowboat owner has described the terrifying moment he crept back onto his sinking vessel to rescue his two cats, after a massive sinkhole opened up on a historic canal, leaving his home dangling over a 160-foot void.
Christmas Homeless After 'Niagara Falls' Sound
Paul Stowe has been left homeless for Christmas after his narrowboat, named Pacemaker, was left teetering on the edge of a vast cavity on the Llangollen Canal in Whitchurch, Shropshire. The catastrophe unfolded in the early hours of yesterday morning when the canal bed collapsed and an embankment failed, causing water to flood an adjacent field and prompting emergency services to declare a major incident.
Mr Stowe escaped barefoot with his wife and son, wearing only the clothes on their backs, after they were woken by a sound like 'Niagara Falls'. He then bravely returned to the stricken boat after his son reminded him of their two pets. 'I went back onboard and managed to get them', he said. 'It was pitch black, freezing and scary because we did not know what had happened.' Incredibly, nobody was injured in the 4.20am incident.
Bob Wood, 75, whose houseboat was the first to plunge into the hole, woke to use the toilet and realised his home was listing. He managed to flee and alert Mr Stowe and the occupants of a third boat before that craft was also sucked into the hole 'stern first'.
Expert Warns of 'Ticking Timebomb' Across Network
Speaking to the Daily Mail from the scene, subsidence specialist Freya Chapman warned the incident may have been caused by an undetected water leak over a prolonged period, akin to a 'ticking timebomb'. She cautioned that other sections of the centuries-old canal network could be at similar risk.
'For this age of canal it would have been a puddly clay lining on the canal bed,' said Ms Chapman, Residential Lead at Mainmark UK. 'Over time, localised defects could occur and even a small defect – over a prolonged period of time – could create an outwards flow, washing away finer materials... beneath the canal bed and weakening all of the infrastructure.'
She added that a dry summer followed by heavy rain could have further weakened the ground, and queried how recent inspections were conducted, stating any failures would be 'difficult to see with the naked eye'.
Canal Trust and Campaigners Sound Alarm on Funding
Julie Sharman, chief operating officer at the Canal & River Trust (CRT), said investigations into the cause were ongoing but that, at this stage, it did not appear to be linked to a leak, a failed culvert or overtopping. She noted the clean-up and rebuilding would likely take months.
The incident has reignited warnings about the perilous state of the UK's canal infrastructure. Earlier this year, the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) warned about the risk to life from a lack of maintenance. Charlie Norman, IWA Director of Campaigns, stated: 'Without decisive action these breaches will keep repeating... Every single added failure shuts down the connected system.'
This is the fourth significant breach on UK canals this year, following incidents in Cheshire on New Year's Day and near Bosley. The CRT has said the affected stretch was inspected last month and underwent a major inspection in spring, and was not thought to be at risk.
A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the government is investing more than £480 million in grant funding to the CRT to support essential infrastructure maintenance.
