ONE of Hampshire's most important waterways is to get an overhaul in a bid to secure its long-term future.

The Itchen Navigation runs the ten miles from Winchester to Southampton and was once the main transportation route for southern Hampshire for everything from coal to food.

The navigation, which has a towpath alongside it and which runs close to the River Itchen, has been in use for almost 300 years.

Originally built in 1710 to take barges from Northam in Southampton to Winchester, it only started losing traffic when the railway link between the two cities was opened in 1880.

The last commercial barge actually left Southampton in 1889 carrying coal, but since then the navigation has become an increasingly important wildlife reserve and leisure route.

However the path is under threat from a combination of bank erosion and winter flooding, which has seen much of the towpath washed away.

Now though, in a partnership between the Hampshire Wildlife Trust, The Heritage Lottery Fund, the Environment Agency, English Nature and local councils, a scheme is under way to repair and conserve the navigation and to restore it to its former glory.

To mark the start of the project, a free exhibition is also being held at the National Trust's City Mill in Winchester from now until August 31, which outlines the work to be done and why its needed.

For further details, visit www.hwt.org.