Itchen Navigation Heritage Trail

History

The trail follows the Itchen Navigation, which is not a true canal but a straightened and diverted part of the River Itchen, improved by digging new cuts, running from Winchester to Woodmill near Southampton. An Act of Parliament of 1665 gave seven undertakers powers to make the river navigable, with a monopoly of the carriage of goods on it; lawsuits with landowners and millers delayed the work, and trading began in about 1710. It was built mainly to carry coal and other goods from Southampton to Winchester. The Southampton to Winchester section of the London and Southampton Railway opened on 10 June 1839, and the navigation's fortunes declined from then; by 1861 only two barges were left in use. The last barge to carry a cargo to Winchester tied up at Blackbridge Wharf in June 1869, and the waterway then fell into neglect.

In the 2000s the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust led a project to conserve the navigation and create a heritage trail along it, on behalf of a partnership of the Environment Agency, Natural England, Hampshire County Council, Winchester City Council, Eastleigh Borough Council, Southampton City Council and the Inland Waterways Association. The Heritage Lottery Fund gave the Trust £1,697,500.

The five-year project ran from 2007 to December 2012: it repaired banks in selected areas and improved the footpath, uncovered and preserved some of the locks, including Mansbridge and St Catherine's, and put in four milestones designed by the artist Abigail Downer to commemorate the charging of tolls.

Visit Winchester describes the trail as about ten miles from Winchester to Woodmill near Swaythling, mainly flat and waymarked with the trail's logo on directional arrows on posts. In 2023 members of a Facebook group, Friends of the Itchen Navigation, formed a charity, the Itchen Navigation Preservation Trust, to raise money and provide volunteers for remedial work on the waterway.