towing path topics, january 2015
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IWA Lancashire & Cumbria Branch's newsletter Towing Path Topics, January 2015TRANSCRIPT
Towing Path Topics
January 2015
The newsletter of the Lancashire and Cumbria Branch of the
Inland Waterways Association
2
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in Towing Path Topics are not necessarily those of The Inland Waterways Association or of its North West Region or of the Lancs and Cumbria Branch. They are, however, published as being of interest to our members and readers. Nothing printed may be construed as policy or an official announcement unless so stated. The Association accepts no liability for any matter in this newsletter.
No reproduction is permitted without acknowledgment.
Cover Illustration: 'Our Bridge'
The bridge to which North Lancs & Cumbria Branch contributed spans the Ribble Link at its junction with the Lancaster Canal.
Editor:- Wendy Humphreys -Nether Greenlowe Farm, Duckshaw Road, Darwen, BB3 2UA
01254 703553
Email [email protected]
Line drawing by Celia Lockley from a photograph taken by David M. Smith.
The editor retains the right to edit any article or letter sub-
mitted for publication.
Copy date for next edition 5th April 2015
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Contents
Page 2 Disclaimer and acknowledgements
Page 3 Contents
Page 4 Welcome from the editor
Page 5 Notice of Annual General Meeting 2015
Page 6 Nomination form for Committee Members
Page 7 Minutes of the AGM 2014
Page 15 Welcome to new members
Page 17 Report from Region Chairman
Page 19 Future Branch meetings
Page 21 Committee list
Page 23 Job information
Page 24 Branch Activities in 2014
Page 26 Canal Society News—Lancaster Canal Trust
Page 27 Extract from Friends of Kennet Magazine November 2014
Page 30 Canal Society News—Manchester , Bolton, Bury Canal
Society
Page 31 Final word from the editor
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Welcome to the January 2015 edition of Towing Path Topics, it has been
some time since the last edition and on behalf of the branch I apologise for
that. I hope it will not be so long until the next one. I am the branch treasur-
er but have taken on the role of Towing Path Topics editor because the
branch recognises the need to keep in touch with members and I volun-
teered! So we will see how it goes. The magazine follows a traditional for-
mat of information about the branch and its activities and news of local ca-
nal societies, if anyone has any ideas for other things which could be in-
cluded in future editions please let me know.
The magazine also includes the agenda for the branch AGM and nomina-
tion forms for new committee members, I hope you will be able to attend
the AGM and even consider joining the committee, we have several vacan-
cies and the more committee members we have the more we can do.
This last year has seen a decline in attendance at Branch Social Meetings
which is a great shame and is a missed opportunity to participate in the
working of the branch and meet fellow members, on behalf of the branch
can I ask you to consider attending the meetings, you will be very welcome
and hopefully you will have an interesting evening.
2015 sees an important event in our area which is the IWA Trailboat Festi-
val, this is being hosted by the Lancaster Canal Trust on 30th and 31st May
and 1st of June please make a note for your diaries, there is more infor-
mation in this magazine and there will be more in the next edition. Speak-
ing of the next edition I will be aiming to produce a further magazine in the
early summer and if you have anything you want to include please let me
have it by 5th April.
There has been some sad news in our committee, David Smith who has
been battling bravely with illness for some time has become so ill that he
has had to go into a Nursing Home. David has been a committee member
for many years and latterly has held the role of Northern Reaches Repre-
sentative, so there is another vacancy on the committee. We will miss Da-
vid at our meetings and wish him and Audrey all the best.
As I write it is near Christmas but when you read this Christmas will be
over so I hope you had a good Christmas and wish you all a Happy New
Year. Wendy Humphreys
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INLAND WATERWAYS ASSOCIATION
LANCASHIRE & CUMBRIA BRANCH
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The Annual General Meeting of the Lancashire & Cumbria Branch of
The Inland Waterways Association will be held at
the Peter Birtwistle Community Centre, 14 Keighley Road, Colne, BB8 0JL on
Thursday 26th February 2015 starting at 7.30pm.
AGENDA
1. Apologies for absence
2. Approval of the minutes of the previous AGM held on 27th February 2014
3. Matters arising from the minutes
4. Chairman’s Report
5. Treasurer’s Report and Presentation of the Accounts
6. Election to Committee
Under the three-year rule Alan Davies, Sharon Davies, Tony Dun-ning, Les Fragle, retire from the committee and are willing and eligible for re-election.
Under the three-year rule David Smith retires from the committee and is not seeking re-election.
Martyn Clapham was co-opted to the committee during the year and is willing and eligible for re-election.
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Nomination Form - Lancashire & Cumbria Branch
Volunteer / Nominee ……………………………………………………
PLEASE PRINT
Signed. ………………………………… Date …………………………
Address. ………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………..
Telephone Numbers H ……………………………… M …………………………………
E-mail ……………………………………………………………
Volunteers / Nominees must be an IWA member of this branch in good stand-ing
Please return form before Monday 23rd February 2015 to:
Tony Dunning, 27 Bridge End, Egremont, Cumbria, CA22 2RE
by email to [email protected]
or else presented to him at the AGM
Under the bye-laws volunteering / nominations can be accepted from the floor at the AGM
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Inland Waterways Association
North Lancashire and Cumbria Branch
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at 7-30 pm in St An-drew’s Church Hall, Tulketh Road, Ashton-on-Ribble, Pres-
ton,PR2 1ES on Thursday 27th February 2014
Branch Members Present:
Martyn Clapham, Sharon Davies, Alan Davies, Stephen Fairbrother, Sally Fairbrother, Janet Dunning, Tony Dunning, Les Fragle, Carol Hannigan, Dave Hannigan, Wendy Humphreys, Derek Humphreys, Barry Horner, Jim Nott, Maralyn Nott, Peter Simmonds, David Cur-rington, & John Allen.
A guest, Peter MacAlpine, was also present.
Apologies for Absence:
Gordon Clapham, Pat Clapham, David Faulkner, G W Oxley, Gillian Smith, Penny Duttson, Martin Funnell, Alan Platt (Region Chairman), Robert Irvine (on behalf of Forth & Clyde Society)
Minutes of the 2012 AGM held on 27th February 2013 in St An-
drew’s Church Hall, Preston
were before everyone present and acceptance was
Proposed by Dave Hannigan
and Seconded by Alan Davies
and agreed without dissent.
Matters arising: None.
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Chairman's Report (Alan Davies):
My comments last year were one of fairly monumental change; change that happened during the previous year and the very real pro-spect of change still to come. That change is still happening. Canal and River Trust are still evolving from a government-centric depart-ment into a much more public facing body. Its new Chief Executive is holding regular meetings with boaters and indeed spending time out on the water. That initiative is being reflected at local level with senior staff from the Wigan office spending days out with boaters and seeing the network directly from the boater's perspective.
Late last year our regional manager, Chantelle Seaborn, came to speak to the branch at an open meeting in Colne. Numbers were fairly small so we were able to all sit together and have a very frank discus-sion in which Chantelle was able to outline her approach to mainte-nance and conservation. In that environment we were able to probe and ask questions that we would not have able to do in a more formal meeting. It is encouraging to know that our local waterways network is in the hands of someone who understands asset maintenance.
On the subject of our monthly meetings over the autumn to spring pe-riod I would encourage you all to try to attend more. We have had some fascinating talks ranging from a detailed story about the Titanic; the use of the larger waterways for commercial carrying; an enlighten-ing account of the history and renovation of Leeds and Liverpool short boat Kennet, to, most recently, the development of the Wool Boat and trading on the canals in general.
The branch held a very successful clean up along the Leeds and Liv-erpool Canal at Brierfield. This was a very successful collaboration between IWA and CRT with the local council chipping in by supplying bins and disposing of the rubbish that was collected. B &Q allowed us the use of their car park and toilets. Almost 70 bags of rubbish were collected from the towpath and margins of the canal. A number of bike frames, trolleys and warehouse trucks were collected from the water
9
and margins of the canal. A number of bike frames, trolleys and ware-house trucks were collected from the water.
We also made appearances at two waterway festivals over the year with our sales and information tent. Skipton, over the May Bank Holiday, was a little cold but we still raised over a hundred pounds. Stephen Fairbroth-er got rather wet at the Burnley Canal Festival but was pleased with the response he got from those that braved the weather.
At last year's AGM I thanked Janet Dunning for thirteen years of maga-zine production. We started the search for someone to continue her ster-ling work but without success. To keep things going I produced a short-ened Newsletter version early in the year hoping we would find a new editor before the next one was due. As time rolled on it became apparent that another magazine was needed. I produced one using Janet's tem-plate in attempt to get more familiar with 24 page publications. It is clear-ly not up to Janet's standards and I am still hoping we can find a volun-teer before the next one is due. Any suggestions of someone to ap-proach would be very welcome.
I reported last year on discussion about branch boundaries in the North West region; as you will have noticed we are now the Lancashire and Cumbria Branch which more accurately describes our area; though it does not acknowledge that we have most of the Scottish members within our branch. The waterways we now cover are the Carlisle Canal, the Lake District, the Lancaster Canal, the Carlisle Canal, the Leeds & Liver-pool Canal, the River Lune, the River Ribble, the Ribble Link and the Ul-verston Canal. The Scottish waterways we cover are the Caledonian Ca-nal, the Crinan Canal, the Forth & Clyde Canal and the Union Canal. John Burt has worked closely with Scottish Waterways, who remain an arm of the Scottish Government, and the SRYA to oversee matters north of the border, but his imminent move abroad means that we have yet another gap to fill in our ranks. If anyone knows of a Scottish resident with a particular interest in Scottish waterways to continue John's excel-lent work we would be delighted to hear from you.
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Finally I want to acknowledge the vast amount of work and effort the IWA has received from Madeline Dean both on a local and a national basis. She has been major part of this branch's work for the past thirty-three years as well as serving on various national committees and attending and working at National Rallies during that time. Our grate-ful thanks go to Madeline along with a sinking realisation that we have yet another hole to fill.
It really is time for a new generation to pick up the baton. So come on you younger ones! That means anyone who is not collecting a pen-sion or feels that they have the energy of someone who doesn't. Seri-ously, you must have an interest by being here tonight. Please put that interest to work in advancing the work of the IWA in general and the branch in particular.
Alan Davies.
Treasurer's Report (Wendy Humphreys):
The Treasurer presented the accounts and reported on the details of the Income and Expenditure shown for the year ending 2012. An op-portunity was given to those attending to put questions to the Treasur-er.
The acceptance of the accounts was
Proposed by Alan Davies
and Seconded by Tony Dunning
and agreed without dissent.
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The North Lancs and Cumbria Branch of The Inland Waterways Association
Balance Sheet as at 31st December 2012
2011 General Accumulated Funds 2012
£7,286.37 Balance as at 1st January 2011 £7,300.90
£14.53 surplus/(deficit) for the year -£171.46
£7,300.90 Balance as at 31st December 2010 £7,129.44
Represented by
Fixed assets
at cost less depreciation to date
current assets
stocks
debtors and prepayments
cheques received not yet paid in
£7,300.90 bank accounts £7,348.44
other funds held by branch
cash in hand
total assets £7,348.44
less current liabilities
creditors
cheques issued and not presented £219.00
total liabilities £219.00
£7,300.90 total funds £7,129.44
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Income and expenditure account for the year ended 31st December
2011 Income 2012
£969.44 total subscription per capita received £1,030.26
donations from IWA enterprises ltd (sales)
donations from IWA enterprises ltd (other)
£146.20 collections at branch social meetings £157.00
income from events and fund raising £548.20
£78.00
grants and donations from other IWA sources £80.00
£90.66 interest received £84.30
£46.64 donations received £1,110.04
£360.87 sale of donated goods £136.75
profit from incidental trading - non IWA (Sales) goods
£263.00 other income as de-tailed below
sale of plaques £145.00
£1,954.81 total income £3,291.55
£1,940.28 total expenditure £3,463.01
£14.53 surplus/loss -£171.46
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2011 Expenditure 2012
£891.80 magazine printing and production costs £740.40
£318.60 postage £769.04
less advertising income
per capita paid to branches
publicity expenses
£150.00 branch social meeting expenses £150.00
working party costs £45.00
£30.00 annual subscriptions paid £30.00
donations to other IWA destinations
£200.00 other donations made £200.00
AGM Costs
officers expenses
travelling
postage £41.08
other
£63.00 misc sales costs £14.09
£175.00 L&L Plaques and postage £224.06
£111.88 Christmas Cards £114.00
Purchase of Clothing £325.34
Preston Guild Festival £810.00
£1,940.28 Total expenditure £3,463.01
Funds committed to Specific Causes
£5,677.54 Northern Reaches Fund £4,867.54
£1,623.36 Branch Funds £2,261.90
£7,300.90 total £7,129.44
Funds held at H/O £1,533.00 From Trail Boat Festival £1,533.00
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Statement of Committee Size:
The Committee consists of a minimum of three elected members and the Re-gion Chairman. There is no upper limit.
Election of Committee Members:
John Burt and Wendy Humphreys retire under the 3-year rule.
They have indicated that they are willing to stand for re-election.
There were no other nominations.
These nominations were
Proposed by Alan Davies
and Seconded by Tony Dunning
and agreed without dissent.
There being no further business of the Meeting, it closed at 8-30 p.m.
Following a refreshment break, David Currington gave an update of the Lan-caster Canal Trust's work on the Northern Reaches of the Lancaster Canal.
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Welcome to new members During the course of the year we have had many new members to the branch, (we have also lost some as well), on behalf of the branch we would like to welcome the following new members to our branch January Mr J Brennan & Family - Barrow-in-Furness Mrs J & Mr C Dixon - New Abbey, Dumfries Mr A Mackie – Burnley February Mr R Orrell - Ponsonby, Seascale Mr J Foster - Bonnyrigg, Midlothian March Mr R A Pursglove - Great Eccleston, Preston April Mrs M Awty-Jones – Barnoldswick Mr & Mrs G & A Cox – Natland Mr R Sewell & Family – Kendal May Mr D Ashdown – Over Kellet, Carnforth June Mr M & Mrs S Dixon - Stone haven, Kincardineshire Mr B & Mrs S Flint - Rawtenstall, Rossendale Mr J Hellon - Greenhead, Brampton Mr B J & Mrs C Macdonald - Milngavie, Glasgow Mr N & Mrs S Parslow – Colne Ms C Stanley – Blackpool Mr P Williams - Kintore, Inverurie July Mr F & Mrs C Embrey - Heath Charnock, Chorley Mr K Randall - Kirkby Lonsdale Mr A Winnington - Skelmorlie, Ayrshire
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August Mr D C Brunt & Family - Great Harwood, Blackburn Mr A Elliott - Scremerston, Berwick-upon-Tweed Mr S & Mrs A Freear - Braemar, Aberdeenshire Mr M & Mrs A Melnyk - Auchtermuchty, Fife Mrs G Taylor & Family - Penrith September Mr A Bulling & Family - New Pitsligo, Fraserburgh Mr D & Mrs K Howe – Carlisle Mr R Smith - Barrow-in-Furness Mr K Watson - Barnoldswick, Lancashire Mr P A & Mrs L A Wilson - Lytham St Annes October Mr R Irvine – Cumbernauld Ms C Mitchell - Armathwaite, Carlisle If you are new to the branch and you joined after October your name will be included in the next magazine. We hope to see you at branch meetings. Les Fragle Membership Officer
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Report from our Region Chairman Alan Platt
2014 seems to have been a year of anniversaries; in IWA terms the most sig-
nificant is the centenary Robert Aickman’s birth, and there are plans to try
and get a Blue Plaque erected outside his home in Gower St, London, also
the first Head Office of the IWA. This followed on from the Tom Rolt’s cen-
tenary last year, and we were all sorry to hear of the passing of his widow
Sonia Rolt last month. I am reminded of how committed and eccentric these
key figures in the history of the Association were. We live in different times
and your current trustees are less colourful. Perhaps that is just as well or
maybe we live in a different age, ruled by risk assessments and KPI anal-
yses; a duller style certainly than our founders showed but I hope we still
have their enthusiasm and spirit, and certainly we share their love of and
commitment to the waterways.
While it is fine to look back, the IWA must look forward to the future, of work-
ing with, but independent of, the Canal & River Trust, and we are still cam-
paigning for the transfer of Environment Agency navigations into CRT, where
they will get priority as navigations. Working with CRT we have achieved a
major success in getting HS2 to realign their route to avoid a picturesque
stretch of the Trent & Mersey near Fradley. This demonstrates one aspect of
our campaigning spirit which is at the heart of the IWA, and its continued rele-
vance.
Locally your branch is looking to enter into a partnership with a local business
to jointly adopt a section of the Leeds & Liverpool. This demonstrates an
awareness that in a very real sense the waterways now belong to us, and it is
up to us to make sure they are valued. That comes down to all of us and I
know that your committee would very much value more members taking an
active role in the branch.
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Locally your branch is looking to enter into a partnership with a local business
to jointly adopt a section of the Leeds & Liverpool. This demonstrates an
awareness that in a very real sense the waterways now belong to us, and it is
up to us to make sure they are valued. That comes down to all of us and I
know that your committee would very much value more members taking an
active role in the branch.
Early in 2015 we get into the season of AGMs and I very much regret that a
prior and long standing engagement prevents me from attending yours in
February; however I hope to make your January social meeting in Preston
and look forward to meeting some of you there. Another date for your diary is
Saturday April 25th when we shall be holding a Region Social at the Eldonian
village on the Liverpool Link from about 11am until about 4pm which promis-
es to be a good opportunity for different branches to get together.
I hope you had a Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year and
hope that the weather enables us to still enjoy the waterways.
Alan Platt
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Future Branch meetings
January 29th 2015 Preston Graham Holland – CRT's National Asset Strategy Manager – Assets and Dredg-
ing
February 26th 2015 Colne Annual General Meeting, followed by Martyn Clapham – Updates to Edmund
Barstow Photographic Slides
March 26th 2015 Preston Ivor Caplan – RBOA and Living Aboard
with the Current Challenges
April 30th 2015 Colne Peter Scott – Sir Peter Scott, CH CBE DSC* FRS FZS – Artist, Conservationist,
Olympian Yachtsman, Wild-fowler, …
Future Branch Meetings—What do members want?
Branch meetings are a way of keeping in touch, meeting fellow members and guests in a social environment, having opportunities to learn more about the waterways which all love and sharing information about what is happening in the branch and region. Please take advantage of this by at-tending the meetings if you possibly can, you will be made welcome and we will be pleased to see you. It is very disheartening for the committee to put so much effort into these meetings and then find only a few of our members attend. On 4th December there was an excellent lecture, one of the best some of us have attended, about some of the wonderful engi-neering involved with our canals entitled Canal Infrastructure – The Mar-vels of Canal Engineering. It was given by George Ballinger, a very enthu-siastic senior engineer with the CRT. However there was very poor at-tendance, just six members (plus a guest), of which 3 were involved in putting the lecture on. A lecture of such interest deserves a much better attendance so we have to ask why there were not more members there. Of course we have many members in Scotland and some in North Cum-bria so it is too far for them to travel but where were all the other mem-bers? We the committee need to know what the members want out of YOUR branch so feel free to tell us, now is your chance,. Please let us know what sort of things you would like the committee to arrange, what subjects, meeting locations and venues or anything else. We will do our best.
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Public Meetings of the Branch
All meetings are last Thursday of the month at 7-00 pm for 7-30 pm start.
Refreshments available before the start and at the interval.
Venues
Preston
St Andrew's Church Hall, Tulketh Road, Ashton-on-Ribble,
Preston, PR2 1ES, (off Blackpool Road).
Bus services from Preston Bus Station: - 68 (Stagecoach) to Tulketh Road, St Andrew's School (drops you opposite); 31 or 61 (Preston Bus) to Newton Road off Blackpool Road (walk on to next road [100 yards], turn left, hall on left)
N.B. There are no bus services between the Railway Station and the Bus Station, a distance of about 1222 yards (0.6 miles).
Getting there by road: From M6 Junction 32, turn onto A6 south towards Preston, take next left onto B6241 Eastway, turn next left to pass under A6, then turn right to continue on B6241 Eastway / Lightfoot Lane / Tom Benson Way. At next roundabout take second exit (of five) B5411 Tag Lane / Wood-plumpton Road to next mini-roundabout. Take second exit (of two) B5411 Woodplumpton Road until traffic lights are reached, then turn right onto A5085 Blackpool Road. At traffic lights turn left onto A5072 Tulketh Road; the Church Hall is the first entrance on the left. There is reasonable off-road park-ing for up to 20 vehicles.
Colne
Peter Birtwistle Community Centre, 14 Keighley Road, Colne, BB8 0JL
Please note, the meeting room is upstairs, and there is no lift. Parking roadside is very limited in the vicinity but there is off-street parking in the cen-tre of Colne. From the roundabout at the end of the M65 in Colne turn left onto the A6068 (Vivary Way) towards Skipton and Keighley. Go through the first roundabout (N Valley Road) and traffic lights (Windsor Street) until the second rounda-bout, turn right onto the A56 (Skipton Road, Town Centre) away from Skip-ton, and at traffic lights turn left into the B6250 (Keighley Road). The Community Centre is on the right within 200 yards, beside the junction for Peter Birtwistle Close.
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Chairman
Alan Davies
M 07785 232985
H 01282 867469
Vice Chairman
And Wild over Water
Sharon Davies
H 01282 867469
Secretary
And Social Secretary
Tony Dunning
27 Bridge End
Egremont
CA22 2RE
M 07730 113894
H 01946 820875
Treasurer
And Leeds Liverpool Canal Society
Wendy Humphreys
Nether Green Lowe Farm
Duckshaw Road
Darwen
BB3 2UA
M 07763 561572
H 01254 703553
Membership Secretary
Les Fragle
Brock Cottage
6 Thistleton Road
Thistleton
Preston
PR4 3XA
M 07946 702274
H 01995 672230
Northern Reaches Representative
David Smith
Brewery Wharf
15 Dark Lane
Whittle-le-Woods
Chorley
PR6 8AE
H 01257 274440
L&C Branch Committee 2014
22
Sales
Vacant
Publicity
Vacant
Region Chairman (ex officio)
Alan Platt
Argoed
Pen Y Cefn Road
Caerwys
Mold
CH7 5BH
M 07860 250152
H 01352 720649
Web Master
Martyn Clapham
5 Cobden Street
Nelson
BB9 0AH
5 Cobden Street
Nelson
BB9 0AH
M 07710 468303
Without portfolio
Stephen Fairbrother
623 Livesey Branch Road
Blackburn
BB2 5DQ
M 07745 560097
H 01254 201841
Lancaster Canal Trust
Helen Thomas
7 Bay View
Over Kellet
Carnforth
7 Bay View
Over Kellet
Carnforth
LA6 1DR
Without Portfolio
Vacant
Scottish Representative
Vacant
As you can see there are plenty of vacancies so now is your chance to join us on the committee! Old members are welcome as well, the stronger team we have the more we can achieve.
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Job information Sales Officer The sales officer will provide income for the branch but is much more than that. The sales officer will provide a focus of interest at branch meetings, a service to members and provide a welcome for newcomers. At outside events a sales officer will have a sales stand which will attract interest, pro-vide information and potential new members, they will also have the rewarding expe-rience of participating in events. They will provide an educational opportunity by having maps, guides and information about the waterways. Work Party Organiser You may have seen that other IWA branches have adopted a length of a canal in their area and hold regular work parties to make sure that the length is attractive to visitors. We plan to adopt a length of the Leeds Liverpool Canal but if we are going to do so we need a work part organiser. The canal clean ups we have done have shown that branch members will support such practical sessions whatever the weather and members of the local community have welcomed our involvement. If you would like to know more about what is involved contact our branch secretary or chairman. Publicity Officer If we don’t tell anyone what we are doing nobody will know! We need someone to take on the task of advertising our presence. A poster in a local library or a shop or a listing in the “What’s on” pages of the waterways magazines and local newspapers has the potential to attract a bigger audience for our speakers or increase the work-force at our work parties. What about our successes? Shouldn’t we tell someone about them? Could you be the one to spread the word about us? The branch chairman or secre-tary will be pleased to hear from you. Scottish Representative The branch has a lot of members in Scotland but it is difficult to know their wishes and represent their views from South of Border! A Scottish Representative would li-aise with the committee about the needs of members in Scotland and about issues local to the Scottish area. Attendance at committee meetings and membership of the committee There is no requirement for the Sales Officer or the Publicity Officer or the Work Party Organiser to be a member of the branch committee although they need to work alongside the committee and keep in touch.
24
Branch Activities in 2014
On the social side the year started with the January meeting in Colne, when
Colin and Carole Waring between them gave a talk with illustrations on the
Woolly Wanderings on the Waterways with their boat Emma Maye, as they
expanded their trading on the canals. There was a much greater attendance
this time compared with the last meeting of the previous year when only sev-
en attended; although the speaker, Chantelle Seaborn CRT's Region Manag-
er, was able to benefit from a more intimate questioning of those that were
there on their opinions with regard to her “Patch”.
The February meeting, of course, had the AGM, and the March meeting
would have had Ivor Caplan, of RBOA talking about Living Aboard with the
Current Challenges, but he had to pull out at the last minute due to an infec-
tion creating breathing problems, but the standby of Stephen Fairbrothers’
videos rescued the day. We should get Ivor coming in March 2015.
During the summer, outdoor activities involved Balsam Bashing at Haslam
Park, Preston, scene of the 2012 Campaign Festival, when 20 Dumpy Bags
were filled with pulled Himalayan Balsam in less than four hours by four IWA
members and four Friends of Haslam Park, together with two Park Rangers
who had other jobs to do as well as shifting the bags when full to dump the
foliage on a heap to rot down, all in drizzly weather.
The new season of talks started in October at Colne, with Nick Mead (and his
wife) of Lady Teal talking about Hotel Boating – Past and Present, and of
their experiences. The November meeting in Preston was actually in Decem-
ber, when we had George Ballinger of CRT talk about Canal Infrastructure –
the Marvels of Canal Engineering, which was a highly intriguing illustrated
talk.
25
During 2014 we also held our bi monthly committee meetings preceded by lunch and a chance to catch up on news. We endorsed the Lancaster Canal Trusts application to hold the 2015 Trail Boat Fes-tival in our area. We commented on various planning applications relevant to the canals in our area. We gave advice and support to members about issues affecting them relating to the Inland Waterways. We attended many Canal and River Trust meetings to gain information and put for-ward the views of our members. We received a new member to our committee, Martyn Clapham who will look after our website. Our Sales Officer resigned from his post due to family commitments but we are pleased to say he still remains on the committee. Our Scottish representative resigned due to moving to Crete, a bit too far away even for us! Sadly we lost the opportunity of another potential new member when John Allen drowned in a tragic incident at Ravenglass. We assisted Friends of Kennet at Burscough Heritage weekend. We donated £500 to the Waterways Recovery Group Big Digger appeal. We purchased a new Branch banner. We continued to administer the Leeds Liverpool Plaques for those travelling the Ca-nal from end to end. For 2015 We have the Trail Boat Festival. We have been approached by a major building company in Pendle to join with them in adopting a length of the Leeds and Liverpool from the southern portal of Foulridge Tunnel to the point where the M65 crosses the canal. A little over a mile and four locks. Canal and River Trust are celebrating the bicentenary of the Leeds Liverpool Canal and we hope to be involved.
Stop press we received £20 form IWA head office as a reward for recruiting new members, can we make it more in 2015!
26
Canal Society News
Lancaster Canal Trust
HLF Catalyst Grant
Lancaster Canal Trust (LCT) applied for and received a ‘catalyst’ grant of
nearly £7,000 from Heritage Lottery Fund. This was to help them increase
their membership, particularly with younger people. They employed a Devel-
opment Consultant who devised surveys for people visiting the canal both
around Lancaster and on the Northern Reaches. Schools and Nurseries
were also approached to complete different surveys. These surveys are be-
ing analysed. Training was given to members of LCT on Facebook and Twit-
ter as these will be useful means for contacting more potential members.
( If anyone reading this is an ardent Twitter user and interested in helping
LCT, we would be delighted to hear from you).
Waterways Recovery Group activities on Lancaster Canal
LCT have been continuing their activities to extend the canal past Stainton,
where the water ends at the moment. They have been ably helped by mem-
bers of the Waterway Recovery Group who had a fortnight camp during the
summer when they profiled the extension of the canal named the ‘First Fur-
long’ between bridges 172 and 173. Hopefully, this section will be in water by
next summer. This will be the first section of the canal to be restored.
Lancaster Canal Regeneration Partnership
After some time, South Lakeland District Council and Kendal Town Council
are making more hopeful noises about a project manager possibly being fi-
nanced.
IWA National Trailboat Festival on Northern Reaches
LCT has applied for and received the next annual IWA National Trailboat
Festival. It will be held at Crooklands on the Northern Reaches of the Lan-
caster Canal at the same time as Westmorland Agricultural Society run their
annual ‘Countryfest’ on their showground – May 30th and 31st though the trail-
boat festival will continue for the 1st June. The usual events will take place
and a more detailed programme will be in the next ‘Towing Path Topics’.
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Extract from the Friends of Kennet Newsletter November 2014
2014 Season
This has been the third and final year of our Lottery Funding. This has seen Kennet mainly on the west side of the country, taking in Runcorn, and the furthest south we have taken her to date. On her journey Kennet attended 8 events and hosted 8 school visits, with some 3900 visitors.The season started with Kennet taking part in the ELWY Boat Club Easter Rally at East Marton. Over the weekend the club members visited Kennet and had a “reception” with slide show.This was followed by Kennet’s traditional visit back to the Skipton Waterways Festival where Leeds & Liverpool Canal Society took her in 2008 after BW agreed to the loan of Kennet. Once again it was a very successful weekend.
Kennet then started her travels westward, stopping at Hyndburn for the first 2 school visits of the season and the first for Hyndburn. On the Saturday
Kennet was also open for the Hyndburn Heritage Day.
A short trip to West End to host a visit of the local primary school, where two of our Captains Harry Belshaw & Ken Barnes, attended in their “younger days”. Harry & Ken enjoyed reminiscing about their early involve-ment with the working boats like Kennet.
Kennet then continued to Burscough for 2 school visits and the Burscough Heritage Weekend. Ambush and Victoria (Heritage Long Boats) were also there to add to the interest. Severn (a sister boat of Kennet) passed between Kennet & Victoria on her way to Liverpool – a rare opportunity to see the area as it would have been in its “hey-day”. The School’s visits saw the first use of our new large floor map of the canal which illustrates the development of the canal and cargo movements. Also used was “The Mary Lawson Story”, an illustrated book which tells the story of Mary Lawson’s life on the canal in her own words.
Kennet’s next port of call was Litherland Wharf to join with the Pride of Sef-ton for the CRT Sefton Explorers School Visits. Another first for us all to have school visits from Sefton. A hugely successful two days despite our Yorkshire volunteers having some difficulty with the “local dialect”. Our
thanks to Katie Jackson, CRT Education Co-ordinator (North) for her in-put and organisation.
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At the end of the second day at Sefton Kennet started her journey to the Bridgewater Motor Boat Club, Runcorn, where she arrived on the Sat-urday ready for Dry Docking on the Sunday. This enabled the hull to be pressure washed for our regular Insurance Survey and then re-blacked. At the same time our BSS was revalidated. We are very grateful to the volun-teers from the BMBC for carrying out the work. While at the boat club Ken-net was viewed by the club members and on the next day by the public on the towpath side. In late August she was opened at the end of the arm as part of the Unlock Runcorn Fun Day. This was organised by the Runcorn Locks Restoration Society to raise the profile of the “Unlock Runcorn” cam-paign.
September saw Kennet at the Crooke Boat, Beer and Folk Festival over the weekend 20
th-21
st. Another successful weekend with many very inter-
ested visitors, some of which volunteered to help Kennet “fly” up the Wigan Flight on the Monday on her journey to Reedley Marina. Many thanks to one and all.
Whilst at Reedley Marina, Kennet was used as a venue for a meeting with Andrew Stephenson MP, a member of the Parliamentary All Party Water-ways Group and the local MP. This was followed later in the week by a re-ception for invited guests on Kennet at Burnley Wharf to promote Kennet in the area and to build up connections for the future. We were honoured to have the Mayor and Mayoress of Burnley attend..
As part of our week in the superbly restored Bank Hall Dry Dock with a new roof, to have the topside paintwork refreshed, Kennet featured in their
official opening by the Mayor of Burnley.
Kennet is now back on her home moorings at Greenberfield awaiting up-dates to her hold area in the New Year before next season.
The success of this year is in no small part due to the 32 volunteers who spent more than 2750 hours and travelled over 7500 miles by car and pub-lic transport. The year hasn’t been without its problems as in previous years, mainly Kennet being slowed up or stopped due to the “bottom of the canal being near the top” and lock gates not fully opening.
Many thanks to everybody who have given their time and effort to en-sure Kennet continues to be a success and move forward each sea-
son with her development.
By kind permission of Friends of Kennet
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Winter Period
We are now in the process of completing our “paperwork” to claim the last of our HLF grant. This will be followed early in the New Year with a meeting of the Working Group to organise the winter programme of working parties and 2015’s season.
Life for our volunteers would be so much better with more volunteers to
spread the load.
There are always plenty of opportunities to help both moving and staffing Kennet along with helping the “backroom volunteers” – if you are interested in helping then please contact us:- Email: [email protected] Tel: Harold Bond on
01535 630597
Join us in helping to promote Kennet by
spreading the word
To keep abreast of our activities don’t forget our online calendar at - http://www.llcs.org.uk/html/
kennet_project.html#calendar
Would you like to Donate or Sponsor
Kennet?
Please send a donation or contact Friends
of Kennet -
Address: c/o 2 Cross Lane Mill, Bradley, Keighley, BD20 9QB.
Email: [email protected]
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Progress on the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal
The MBBC was authorised by Act of Parliament 1791, and built under the leadership of local coal-owner Matthew Fletcher. It was opened by 1797 and connected to the River Irwell in Salford 1808; despite its name it does not go to Manchester! It is just over 15 miles long and has 17 broad locks raising it 187 feet. It was originally designed as a narrow canal but widened during construction to be able to link with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Red Moss, but this and two other extensions to Haslingden and Sladen were proposed but not built. It has three arms (to Bolton, Bury and Salford) which meet at Nob End in Little Lever. Its major features include two sub-stantial aqueducts, the six locks at Nob End and our iconic steam crane at Mount Sion. Parts became disused from 1924, and a major breach at Nob End severed the Bury arm in 1936. It was formally closed in 1961; but a short length remained in use in Bury until 1966. The Canal Society was formed in 1987 to protect the line of the canal and to campaign to promote its restoration. The Society works with the Canal & River Trust and the three local authorities to co-ordinate action. Preliminary survey and design work is complete. The first length was re-opened at Mid-dlewood in Salford in 2008. The Society organises regular working parties to keep the canal and its towpath clear. Plans exist for a further length to be restored in Salford, for the restoration of Bury Wharves and for significant work at the central junction of the three canal arms at Nob End. The canal is a key route along the Irwell and Croal valleys, connecting many urban areas via a largely rural route, and the restored canal will pro-vide new jobs, bring in private investment, and bring large areas of land back into use for housing and commercial development. The restored canal will link together existing country parks and recreational areas. We aim to have a new visitor centre plus heritage and interpretation facilities, safe routes for walking and cycling, trip boats, improved fisheries, and direct links between town and country. It will also improve local environments and bio-diversity, bring new educational, cultural and heritage initiatives, and encourage volunteering. The most important recent event was the construction of the now famous and unique ‘Meccano Bridge’ at Nob End. It was designed by local artist Liam Curtin, and uses exact replicas of Meccano pieces, but scaled up ten times. The Society was the principal contractor for Bolton Council, and the bridge and its abutments were built entirely by volunteers, both Society members and local residents. It has 330 Meccano pieces, 720 nuts and bolts, weighs 5½ tons, and was built in 4 days! The whole canal is fully described in the Towpath Guide, available from the Society at £6 plus £1.20 p&p. Meadowbank, Ringley Road, Radcliffe, Manchester, M26 1FW.
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Final Word
Well I hope you enjoyed reading the magazine and that you all have a happy new year, hopefully we will see you at some of our meetings or maybe at the Trailboat Festival or other canal events, maybe some of you will even join us on the committee! And remember we have a lot to look forward to in 2015. We have the Trail Boat Festival with lots of volunteering opportunities, please get in touch if you are interested.. We have been approached by a major building company in Pendle to join with them in adopting a length of the Leeds and Liverpool from the southern portal of Foulridge Tunnel to the point where the M65 crosses the canal. A little over a mile and four locks.
Canal and River Trust are celebrating the bicentenary of the Leeds Liverpool Canal and we hope to be involved.
Don’t forget if you want to contribute to the next edition please let me have your articles, comments, pictures etc. by 5th April 2015. The editor Wendy Humphreys
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