Editing Gloucester and Sharpness Canal (section)

===Purton hulks===
{{Main|Purton Hulks}}
In 1909, following a collapse in the bank of the river, the canal company's chief engineer A.&nbsp;J. Cullis called for old vessels to be run aground along the bank of the Severn, near [[Purton, Berkeley|Purton]], to create a makeshift tidal erosion barrier to reinforce the narrow strip of land between the river and canal.<ref>{{cite web
  | title=The Purton Hulks
  | work=morturn.com – Legacy from the past
  | url=http://www.morturn.com/locations/Sites/Purton/Purton_Site_Page.htm
  | access-date=2008-10-19
  | archive-date=3 March 2016
  | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182408/http://www.morturn.com/locations/Sites/Purton/Purton_Site_Page.htm
  | url-status=dead
  }}</ref> [[Barge]]s, [[trow]]s and [[schooner]]s were "hulked" at high tide, and have since filled with [[silt]].  More boats have been added, including the schooner ''Katherine Ellen'' which was impounded in 1921 for running guns to the [[Irish Republican Army (1922–69)|IRA]], the [[Kennet_and_Avon_Canal#River_navigations|Kennet barge]] ''Harriett'', and [[Concrete ship|ferrocement barges]] built in World War II.<ref>{{cite news
  | title=Purton Hulks – maritime history sunk by neglect | work=telegraph.co.uk
  | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/18/eaboatwreck118.xml | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081020064309/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/18/eaboatwreck118.xml | url-status=dead | archive-date=2008-10-20 | access-date=2008-10-19 | location=London
  | date=2008-10-18}}</ref>

In 1999, Paul Barnett started a privately funded research project to record the 81 vessels at the site, recognised as the largest ships' graveyard in mainland Britain.<ref>{{cite web
  | title=The Friends of Purton
  |url=http://www.friendsofpurton.org.uk
}}</ref> In 2010 [[British Waterways]] took control of the site in an attempt to protect it.<ref name=bbcpurton>{{cite news
  |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-11384382
  |title=Purton Hulks taken over by British Waterways
  |access-date=2010-10-06
  |work=  BBC News| date=2010-09-22
}}</ref>