RCHS member Chris Lowe has developed what started as a small project to properly map the Wey & Arun canal and Arun Navigations for the Canal Trust, manually on big white boards using pens and Letraset, into an interactive map showing canals, past and present. Chris’s description and status report, as of December 2020, is as follows:

“I have a large Google Earth file that is a map of UK & Irish waterways and although it is still a work in progress and probably will be for quite some time, it is currently kindly hosted online by RailMapOnline.com. I’m regularly updating the map as I started it by just showing routes, but I’m currently going back over the entire map to add in all the locks, bridges, aqueducts, wharfs, and any other relevant features. Various experts have checked parts of the map, including Mike Clarke who is checking the Leeds & Liverpool section. Richard Dean & David Slater have checked the Leominster, Ken Otter has checked the Stamford canal. I’m updating two areas at the moment: the Lancaster  canal along with the Driffield navigation and the River Hull.”

The file is large and has a file structure allowing parts of the map to be turned off to speed up screen refresh time.

RailMapOnline.com provides free interactive maps showing past and present railways, canals, trams and trolleybus systems for the UK and Ireland, plus historic US railroads.