Many waterways enthusiasts, particularly those engaged in restoration and regeneration projects, were saddened to hear of the death of Patrick Moss following a long illness.

Patrick Moss was an inland waterways specialist, an enthusiast for restoration who put who his specialist skills in planning and engineering into action through a consultancy that led on studies to advance a range of waterway restoration projects.  Patrick came from a waterways family, living near the Peak Forest Canal and taking family holidays on canal boats – Patrick’s father, Ian Moss, was a leading light in the Railway and Canal Historical Society (President 1996 to 1998, director 1996 to his death in 2022 and vice president from 2007 to 2022), and Patrick joined Huddersfield Canal Society in 1980 at the age of 14.

Patrick began his career working for Atkins, the global engineering consultancy that undertook the first ever feasibility study for the restoration of the Montgomery Canal, before establishing Moss Naylor Young Ltd in 2011, which specialised in canal restoration and local planning and regeneration.

Through Moss Naylor Young, Patrick saw canals not as accessories but as the main components of urban and rural regeneration. Patrick was also chair of the Somerset Coal Canal Society (established 1992) and followed his father’s footsteps as a director of the Railway and Canal Historical Society and chair of its management committee from 2019 until his death in 2026. Based in Frome, Somerset, he was chair of IWA’s West Country Branch for a short period.

[The photo, left, of Patrick Moss is courtesy of Adrian Moss]

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