A major incident was declared in the early hours of Monday morning after a dramatic structural failure along a canal in Whitchurch, leaving boats stranded, water drained from the channel, and emergency services scrambling to contain the damage.

The collapse occurred on a stretch of canal in an area of the town known as Chemistry, where a large cavity opened beneath the waterway shortly after 04:00 GMT. 

Two narrowboats were reported to have sunk into the breach, while others were left precariously balanced on the edge of the collapse. 

Witnesses described the hole as being approximately 15 feet deep, with the canal bed left almost completely dry as water poured into the surrounding farmland.

Emergency response and evacuation efforts

Fire and rescue services deployed around 50 firefighters to the scene, amid fears that further failure could trigger flooding in nearby residential areas. West Mercia Police confirmed there were no reports of casualties and urged members of the public to avoid the area.

According to Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, crews were alerted at approximately 04:20 after reports that a canal bank had collapsed, releasing large volumes of water into adjacent fields. 

Area manager Scott Hurford said emergency responders prioritised the evacuation of residents living on boats close to the breach.

“The information we’ve had back is that the canal bank failed and that’s what put the emergency call in,” he said.

“The water from the canal has leaked out of the canal into the surrounding fields… There are up to 15 people who had to be moved out of the way to safety, and there’s a number of canal boats that have been affected, some of those have gone into the field and some are at the bottom of the canal.”

He added: “Our job is the response phase, so we’re there to save life, protect property and the environment, but we will support in the recovery phase.”

Boat residents describe waking to chaos

Boat residents described being jolted awake by violent noises in the darkness, with some initially fearing an earthquake. Lorraine Barlow, who lives aboard a narrowboat moored close to the collapse, said she sensed something was wrong before seeing the scale of the damage.

“About 04:20 this morning I could feel that there was something amiss, there seemed to be a current coming from underneath the boat, and bubbling, it sounded really unusual.

“Then I was tilting to the middle of the canal, I could feel the ropes were getting tight.”

She said she left the boat and could see the fire service as well as search and rescue teams.

“There was no water on the canal.

“I was worried about the ropes and about my canal boat hanging there.

“It’s an awful thing, I was worried about the other people.”

Another boat resident, Paul Storey, estimated the damaged section of canal stretched between 150 and 180 feet, with the cavity itself measuring roughly 15 feet deep.

“We were awoken at about 04:20 this morning with a crash on the boat, things were sliding out of the cabinets… We got off the boat, walked about 100 yards in front.

“We could hear the breach, the rush of water was amazing… We saw a boat that had gone over the edge and was in the bottom of the breach.

“We witnessed another boat being washed away.”

He added: “Because of the noise and the crashing of the boats, and the creaking of the ropes, people knew something was going on and got off the boats as quickly as they could.”

Engineers rule out sinkhole and landslip

Initial descriptions of the incident varied, with references to a sinkhole or landslip circulating in the early response. However, Canal and River Trust later clarified that the correct classification was an “embankment failure”.

Mark Durham, the trust’s principal engineer, said neither sinkhole nor landslip accurately reflected what had occurred.

He said “embankment failure” was more apt, adding the embankment in question was a man-made one, and designed to “hold the canal up, which it’s done for over 200 years”.

That changed on Monday, although it was too early, he said, to know how the embankment had failed.

He added that after recovering the stricken boats, the next steps would be examining the area and rebuilding it.

Flood risk contained as investigation begins

Local councillor Andy Hall confirmed that emergency crews had installed a flood gate to prevent further water loss and reduce the risk of flooding in the town.

“The most important thing is that the canal itself has been secured by fire and rescue,” he said. “Their biggest worry was that the canal was going to burst even more and flood residents in the town.”

He also dismissed speculation circulating online, stating that no bridge had collapsed.

Responding to claims on social media that the embankment had been inspected shortly before the failure, Mr Durham said the trust’s inspection regime was robust.

“We have a really robust inspection scheme.

“I’ve spoken to two people that inspected that embankment today and I’m satisfied that there were no causes for any intervention or undue concern at the time, but it is something that we need to look into.”

The Canal and River Trust said it would seek to restore water levels on either side of the breach as soon as possible, while providing support to affected boaters and residents. Investigations into the cause of the collapse are expected to form part of the recovery phase once the site is stabilised.