A boat festival is being repeated at Wootton Bassett

That will add to pressure to cross the M4, said Henry Smith, one of the canal promoters.

He told BBC News Online: "Everything else pales into insignificance beside the challenge of crossing the motorway."

Bryant Homes unveiled plans for the Front Garden this month after challengers failed to win a High Court ruling against it.

The scheme shows the main line of the canal and a junction with the North Wilts Canal, which the trust also wants to restore.

Aqueduct wrecked

The Wilts and Berks Canal opened in 1795, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Melksham with the River Thames at Abingdon - now in Oxfordshire.

In 1820 the North Wilts Canal opened between Swindon and Wiltshire, joining the Thames and Severn Canal.

Boat trips are planned for Swindon this year

Boats were unable to travel the whole route after an aqueduct collapsed in 1901, and the waterways were official abandoned in 1914.

But a restoration group was formed in 1977 and now a partnership has been formed with British Waterways, the Environment Agency and local authorities along the route.

The canals are being promoted as part of a network called Wessex Waterways, including the River Thames and the Kennet and Avon.

Several short sections already have water, including a mile-long stretch through the Front Garden itself.

Route lost

Swindon presented a major barrier to restoration because most of the route had been swallowed by development.

A new route was devised, though the canal trust still has to negotiate with developers over where the two waterways will join in Swindon.

The canal trust has restored locks and bridges

"We want it to be as close to the town centre as possible," said Mr Smith, chairman of the Swindon branch of the trust.

Work groups have restored bridges and locks.

They are currently working on one of a flight of seven locks near Lyneham.

A festival was held on the waterway at Wootton Bassett in 1998, for boats transported on trailers.

Another will be held there in June 2002, and boat trips are planned on the Front Garden section this summer.

Mr Smith is confident the canal will reopen. "I think it will be restored within 10 years," he said.