'I just want to be away from my boat in canal hole'

A man whose narrowboat fell into a giant hole when part of a canal collapsed has said he just wants to stay away from the scene, following his ordeal.

Talking to the BBC one week on from events on a stretch of the Llangollen Canal in Whitchurch, Shropshire, Bob Wood said the last time he saw his boat was when he fell off it, and from the towpath watched one end tip up nearly 10ft before the entire craft disappeared before his eyes.

He said he had since resigned himself to never getting back his boat, stricken at the bottom of the cavity that was created when an embankment gave way.

What he most needed now, he said, was time to get over the experience.

Mr Wood and his partner had been living on the boat, named Sefton, almost full time for eight years. He said they were now residing at a property outside of the West Midlands, although did not wish to share the location.

He praised a Shropshire Council homelessness unit for assisting him in the immediate aftermath of the canal breach.

That breach occurred shortly after 04:00 GMT last Monday and saw gallons of water escape into a nearby field, a gaping trench rip into the canal bed, and two narrowboats – including Mr Wood's - descend into it. Other boats teetered on the hole's edge, or listed as water ran away.

While Mr Wood's partner was not aboard at the time, Mr Wood and his dog escaped just moments before their home tipped into the vast, waterless cavity.

He said he initially thought he could hear a storm outside.

"When I opened the door there was no storm at all, just the terrific noise of water, and I realised the water was running really fast under the boat," he told the BBC.

"I thought 'this boat is not the place I want to be'."

At that point, he tried to step off, but instead fell "full length flat" on his face.

"I... saw the back end of the boat eight or ten feet in the air," he said.

"It's the last I saw of [it]."

At least, that is, in person.

Mr Wood explained how he saw fire service drone footage on a screen being used by crews sent to the scene.

"They were taking us to the fire station for safety [but] I couldn't get away from that screen at first," he recalled.

His boat remains in the hole, and Mr Wood has "no idea" what happens next.

"We've just resigned ourselves to not getting it back but [the Canal and River Trust] are saying there's a chance," he said.

In the meantime, "I just want to be away from it", he explained.

An online fundraising campaign has raised tens of thousands of pounds for Mr Wood and his partner, along with another family whose boat is also in the hole, and Paul Stowe, a man whose vessel was hanging off the hole's edge.

"When [the fundraising appeal] was put up… it was put up to raise £1,000, and you know where [the total is] now - we're just flabbergasted by it, really," he said of the efforts.

"It'll help, but I don't think it'll help as much as time will, you know?"

He said he still could not believe what had happened.

In its latest update on 24 December, the Canal and River Trust said it had refilled parts of the canal with water, and other stranded boats were floating once more.

It had also towed the Pacemaker - the boat teetering on the edge of the hole - to safety.

The organisation said previously that it was trying to understand what caused the embankment collapse, and following that, engineers would prepare a plan for the "huge and likely lengthy task of rebuilding and then reopening the canal".

It said among the priorities would be attempts to salvage the two boats stricken in the trench.

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