Throughout the film an unnamed interviewer talks to Robert Aickman, Founder of the Inland Waterways Association, as the pair travel in a boat along the Lower Avon (which was re-opened to pleasure craft from Tewkesbury to Evesham in 1962). We are then introduced to the newly opened waterways museum at Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire. The museum's curator, Charles Hadlow, provides a commentary to shots of some of the exhibits. Back on the Avon we see a boat travelling through a rare diamond shaped lock. Next at the Grand Junction of the Stafford and Worcester canal expert Colonel Ritchie provides more history to the development of canals. His section includes a series of stills and covers James Brindley and Thomas Telford. We then see views of derelict canals and waterways. We then learn about the future of freight transport on canals as Leslie Martin who runs a commercial carrying company talks about the new British Waterways licensing system. There are also views of a canal family travelling on a freight boat (a Willow Wren boat travelling through Braunston lock in Northamptonshire on the Grand Union canal) with a commentary from a working bargee. The next section covers leisure, and we see Captain Lionel Munk, the Chairman of the Inland Waterways Association travelling along a canal in a motor boat. Many canals still need restoration and we see work underway on the Stratford canal. The organiser of the restoration project, David Hutchings, talks to camera (at Wilmcote in Warwickshire) and also provides a commentary over views of work being carried out by volunteers.
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