Funds have been made available to help uncover the history behind one of Norfolk's working waterways from days gone by.

The Aylsham Navigation, a 9.5-mile stretch between the town and Coltishall, was closed in August 1912 after floods washed out the five locks and some of its bridges.

From the late 18th century until then, the navigation, part of the Bure valley river system, had been a major route for trade between the two communities and beyond, with wherries travelling its length to deliver and take away goods. It is said that, at the height of the water transport years, 26 wherries were serving Aylsham.

But after the flooding disaster the navigation was never reopened, and it was formally abandoned in November 1928.

Now, a project has been launched to commemorate the centenary next year of its closure. Part of this is a collaboration between Aylsham Local History Society and staff and students from the centre of East Anglian studies within the school of history at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The team is known collectively as the Aylsham Navigation Research Group, and it aims to uncover the history behind the navigation, making use of archive material held by Aylsham Town Council.

Also it could include underwater research conducted by the Nautical Archaeology Society.

The research group has just been awarded �5,500 of funding to help with the project.

Sarah Spooner, lecturer in landscape history and engagement at UEA and a member of the research group, said; 'The grant is from CUE East (Comm-unity University Engagement East), which will support the publication of a book on the history of the navigation and provide funding for an interpretation board in Aylsham and a series of exhibition panels about the navigation.'

Jim Pannell, from Aylsham Local History Society, said: 'We are going to be researching Aylsham archives, alongside undertaking field research looking for what remains of the Aylsham Navigation, both on land adjacent to the navigation and under-water as well.'

The group hopes too that it will hold a centenary exhibition in September next year at Aylsham Town Hall.

The research team is part of a much wider umbrella group that is co-ordinating the Aylsham Navigation project: this includes parish councillors, the Norfolk Wherry Trust, the Museum of the Broads, and the Broads Authority.

The overall group is planning to sail a wherry all the way along the navigation on August bank holiday 2012.

The idea is to take the 112-year-old Wherry Albion, one of only two remaining trading barges built specifically for the Broads, to Coltishall with some token cargo, possibly coal or sugar, and then use canoes to transport the cargo from Coltishall to Aylsham.

Stuart Wilson, who chairs Brampton Parish Council and who is serving on the umbrella group committee, said members had been making good progress with their plans.

He added that one of their plans, subject to receiving landowners' permission, was to have a waterside trial from Aylsham to Coltishall and to do a wildlife audit on the waterway.

To find out more about Aylsham Navigation Project 2012 and how to get involved, visit www.eastinvolve.net/aylsham-navigation