He said restoration of Gennets Bridge Lock would allow canal boats to travel north from the Loxwood Canal Centre in West Sussex up to the Surrey border for the first time since the canal was abandoned in the late 19th Century.
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra played, a choir performed and a flotilla ofboats passed through the illuminated bridge during a ceremonial lifting of the leaves.
The Nan-Shan was being looted by the storm with a senseless, destructive fury: trysails torn out of the extra gaskets, double-lashed awnings blown away, bridge swept clean, weather-cloths burst, rails twisted, light-screens smashed and two of the boats had gone already.