3 hours ago
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Chloe HughesWest Midlands
BBC
The Pacemaker was left perilously close to tipping into the large hole
A narrowboat that was left teetering on the edge of a giant hole after part of a canal in Shropshire collapsed has been pulled to safety.
Paul Stowe's boat, the Pacemaker, was perilously close to falling into the hole on the Llangollen Canal in Whitchurch, which opened up on Monday after an "embankment failure".
Mr Stowe, originally from Solihull, escaped barefoot with his wife, son, and two cats at about 04:10 GMT after he woke and heard rushing water "equivalent to the Niagara Falls".
Shropshire Council said the boat, which the family live on, was rescued at about 22:00 on Tuesday using a specialist winch operation.
Once in location, the winch was able to haul the boat along the drained canal away from the breach hole," the authority said in a statement.
"The boat is now safely located next to the lift bridge," the council said, adding that it would be refloated in the new year, when a dam would be constructed beyond the boat.
Overnight, water was pumped into dammed sections created by the Canal and River Trust on Tuesday, and as of 06:00 on Wednesday, water levels were recovering.
"This means that one of the boats near to the breach site, plus six further up the canal, are now beginning to refloat," it said.
"They are expected to be fully afloat by later today."
Watch: Boat disappears into hole in canal
Mr Stowe previously told the BBC that all of his and his family's possessions were on the boat, and that they had escaped with only the clothes on their backs.
He said they had no phones or credit cards, and added his birthday was on Christmas Day.
"I'm not sure I'll ever moor in this area again, I'm not sure I'll ever moor on an embankment again," he said.
"I'll be honest with you, it's very debatable [that] I'll ever want to go on a boat again."
The authority added that investigations had begun into what caused the collapse.
"This will continue after the new year together with the initial plans to recover the two boats in the breach hole and the long and costly process of rebuilding and reinstating the canal."
Paul Stowe said he and his family only had the clothes on their backs, and their two cats
"Now the initial emergency response, including the concern for boaters' immediate safety, has passed, our teams have been working hard to refill the Llangollen Canal around the site of the breach," said Campbell Robb, chief executive of the Canal and River Trust.
"This will mean the boats in the immediate area are refloating, and navigation along other affected areas will be restored."
He said the trust would be providing regular updates and assurance to the local community and boating community in the coming weeks.
"Thankfully, breaches of this scale are relatively rare, but, when they do occur, they're expensive and complicated to fix," he said.
The trust previously told the BBC that repairs could take months.
