Arts Project extends to Musical Tunnels

Following the success of the hugely popular Locklines arts project, which has seen lines of poetry appear on lock gates, the Canal and River Trust is promoting a new project that will incorporate music into the canal experience.


Poetry on the beams of Lock 9e of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

In 2013 The Canal and River Trust surprised canal fans by appointing a Canal Laureate and forming a partnership with leading poets. Part of this project involved lines of poetry being engraved onto the balance beams of several locks where new gates were being fitted. There have also been canalside poetry events and poetry readings allowing the public to become involved.

The poetry project has proved so popular that, working with the Arts Council, the Canal and River Trust is developing ways to extend its arts outreach by creating musical experiences on the waterways.

Several tunnels, including Preston Brook and Foulridge in the north, are to be included in the project. Loudspeakers are to be positioned in ventilation shafts so that specially composed music can be heard echoing through the tunnels. Electrical power will be provided by solar panels and wind generators situated on the surface above the air shafts.


Impression of how the musical light show will appear to boaters.

As an additional feature to enhance the experience for boaters, coloured lighting is being installed to give a 'light show' where the colours will change in time with the music. The project will be launched at the beginning of April and, if it proves to be as popular as expected, could become a permanent feature of the waterways.

Ms Flora Lipo, the newly-appointed National Waterways Maestro, was very excited by the proposals. "I am very excited by the proposals," she commented. "This is the first time since Handel's Water Music was performed on the Thames that such an innovative integration of water and music has been explored. We are working with our partners, musical event organisers Sounding Bored, to put these fantastic proposals into operation."

Derbyshire narrowboat owner Melandra Castle is not impressed, though. "I am concerned about the lack of consultation," she complains. "This is the first we have heard of this proposal. It is another example of CRT turning the waterways into a giant theme park. They would be better spending the money on dredging."

However, Ms Lipo assures boaters that all the initial money will come from arts funding and the installation will be done at the same time as routine tunnel maintenance. Later on, volunteers will be invited to knit items which can be sold to raise funds to keep the project going through the 'Crochet a Crotchet' scheme.

Some live performances are also to be included in the project. Opera singer Dame Avril Fish will be in Standedge Tunnel this morning. She will travel in the CRT safety 'shadow' van through the adjacent disused railway tunnel and will serenade boaters as they pass the connecting adits. Ms Lipo reckons that the echoes in Britain's longest canal tunnel will be unbelievable. “Members of the public will be able to hear this incredible ethereal music from each end of the tunnel. You'd be a fool to miss this rare opportunity,” she added.