Restoration work on the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal near Newent is set to gather pace at both the Oxenhall and Willows sites.

So far this winter, volunteers have demolished a cracked wall close to the aqueduct at Oxenhall and had to shore up another wall to prevent it getting worse.

But rebuilding work on the aqueduct itself has been put on hold, for other jobs to be tackled nearby.

Trust spokesman Brian Fox said a list had been compiled for the new year and work had started on dredging a feeder brook that was raising canal water levels too high.

He said: "It's hard to imagine but the water can rise as far as the top of the arch."

Stones that have fallen in to the canal in the last half-century or so will be retrieved for rebuilding work, but this may not occur until the spring.

At the Willows, work has started on a tidy up, including removal of thousands of old plant pots, empty gas cylinders, two old railway wagons and hundreds of saplings which have grown there since the nursery ceased trading six years ago.

The railway wagons are a reminder of the former station nearby and one will be kept for storage. The other may be offered to railway buffs for restoration.