A run down canal which runs through Rutland and Leicestershire could be restored to its former glory.

The Melton and Oakham Waterways Society wants to tidy up a quarter mile stretch of the canal at Oakham.

The Oakham Canal once ran from the town centre to Ashwell but has been long forgotten and currently the banks are overgrown, the water is full of silt and walkways are dark and uninviting.

Melton and Oakham Waterways Society has teamed up with Rutland County Council and Oakham in Bloom and is determined to restore it.

Rutland County Council is going to carry out tests on the water to find out how much silt is in the water.

Ron Francis, from the Melton and Oakham Waterways Society, said It is beginning to look a bit like a tip with all sorts of refuse thrown in there.

We would like to sort it out and get rid of the debris and make it an area to be proud of.

If proposals to restore the canal at Oakham are approved by from Rutland County Council, the group said it could be restored within two years.

The canal once ran through rural Leicestershire and Rutland from Melton Mowbray, home of pork pies and Stilton cheese, to Oakham in the county town of Rutland.

It was one of the first canals to close as a direct result of the arrival of the railways.

The canal joined the Melton Mowbray Navigation in that town, making a through route to the River Soar near Leicester.