West Vale Branch

The West Vale Branch section has the Wiltshire / Oxfordshire border as it's western limit (where the canal crossed the River Cole) and extends some 12km to Uffington Gorse wood, just east of the village of Uffington. The canal meanders through the Vale of the White Horse skirting the villages of Bourton, Shrivenham, Longcot and Uffington. Being rural, the line is quite apparent for much of this length; except where crossed by the railway (twice), by roads and access tracks and for a section around Uffington.

(Extract from the Trust Interactive Map showing the area of the West Vale Branch)

Monthly Branch Planning Meetings, open to all, usually are held on the third Tuesday of each month, starting at 7:00 pm at The Prince of Wales pub in Shrivenham High Street.

Weekly Work-parties are held on Wednesday & Saturday mornings from 9:30am, weather permitting, meeting at The Shrivenham Canal Park in Stainswick Lane.
On most Wednesdays, work-parties are also held on our site at Uffington Gorse Wood, on the road to Baulking.
Anyone is welcome to lend a hand, we have lots going on as noted below, so extra hands are always much appreciated. Training on the use of our equipment can be arranged.
Or just to drop by the Canal Park or Uffington Gorse for information and a chat.
For more information, please contact our Work-party Organiser - ian.horsfall@wbct.org.uk

 If manual activity is not for you, perhaps you could assist our local projects by helping with publicity, fundraising, organising events or donating unwanted DIY tools, gardening equipment & mowers. Visit us at a Branch Meeting or at the Shrivenham Canal Park, as above, or contact us at westvale.branch@wbct.org.uk .
Or maybe even donate something from our Amazon wish list of kit that we really need - Wish List on Amazon

April 2025 Update

At Shrivenham Canal Park The snowdrops and daffodils have put on a good show this year and we hope the thinning of dead trees in the copse will promote more bluebells. Many of our "specimen" trees are now in blossom. The unusual recent dry spell this month has required our volunteers to spend much time watering and mulching the tree saplings that were planted in January. Some further excavation of the culvert at the eastern end of the canal has been undertaken and indicated significant leaks. Due to high water levels, more digging will have to wait until the summer. The Shrivenham Gardening Club have recently, kindly, planted up the old boat that we installed by the car park during the winter.
At Uffington Gorse

The paths in the wood have dried and improved significantly and the hedge laid alongside Moor Mill Road during the winter is "greening up", also some of the donated bird boxes are now being occupied. Work this month is concentrating on removing the remaining logs and tree stumps from the infilled length of the canal. This is to enable trial pits to be dug to ascertain what materials were dumped in the canal over the years.

 See our News Page for an update on what we have been doing over the last few months and have a look at the Projects pages for details of each of our restoration sites.

To visit our lengths of canal & sites open to the public please see our
Local Information Page.

We welcome "Corporate Volunteer Teams".
Many local firms have visited us for a fun day away from the office/workplace volunteering on canal restoration. We have a variety of jobs always on offer depending upon the time of year and the physical abilities and numbers of visitors. Work can be arranged for small groups, two or three, up to about 30, for a couple of hours or for a full day.

Contact our Corporate Volunteers Co-ordinator - alan.norris@wbct.org.uk
Click here for further information and previous volunteer groups
 

For further details about West Vale Branch please contact our acting chairman - Ian Bailey at ian.bailey@wbct.or.uk