Cotswold Canals - Portrait Of A Waterway - October 2020

20th October 2020
Produced to celebrate the wonderful news that Heritage Lottery Fund have granted £9.8 million towards the rebuilding and restoration of part of the Stroudwater Navigation from Saul to the Ocean at Stonehouse, which will also have major funding and input from Stroud District Council, the Cotswold Canals Trust, and Canal & River Trust.
Stonehouse and Stroud will be put back on the map of waterway towns.
Making this film is the only way I can personally say "thank you".
Highways England have already created a new canal channel and bridges where the A38 crosses the canal between Whitminster and Fromebridge, and that has been an exciting place to film and take photos since the end of lockdown.
I have "attempted" to emulate the style of the 1970s John Betjeman film "The Queen's Realm - A Prospect of England", but in this first version without poetry and words of Shakespeare. The location "astons" are deliberately small to better suit large screen viewing, and there will ultimately be a better version. (The audio track has deliberately been left with a large dynamic range which better suits hi-fi listening rather than a tablet or small device)
It is truly a "landscape of trees and water," and the "missing mile" currently presents difficult access for pedestrians. I hope that this visual journey along the route will also inform and enthuse.
music:
Edward Elgar. Symphony no.1. Op.55 Colin Davis BBC Symphony Orch.
Parlophone Records Limited Warner Music Group

[@kaol5006]

Well done. Nice to see the canal being restored.

[@robertpagetfilms]

Many thanks!

[@kayjayhindes-hardy9339]

Well done this is a mega film, and brilliant 'Elgar'

[@robertpagetfilms]

Glad you enjoyed it. There will be a far better version in due course.

[@derekreynolds2072]

I had not heard that much of Elgar's symphony No.1. op. 55 before. It has grandeur, pathos, defiance and hope, all rolled into one. A suitable accompaniment. Well done.

[@robertpagetfilms]

It surprised me how long it plays for. I agree that it is full of so many emotions.

[@colmone5592]

Well done to all involved.

[@simoncroft9792]

Thanks for the Whitminster lock section, I couldn’t understand why the old cut just stopped apparently!

[@robertpagetfilms]

That section which ran parallel to the river probably made life easier than hauling against a river current.
I incorrectly labelled the aqueduct, and It should have read "Lockham" aqueduct.