Bear Essentials No23

BEAR ESSENTIALS The Newsletter of : -

IWA Warwickshire Branch Issue No. 23 – January 2009.

Our Winter– Spring Programme Venue : Leek Wooton Sports Club th

January 14 2009.

‘New Year Dinner’ The Durham Ox, Shrewley Already well subscribed but we may be able to fit in one or two more th

February 11 2009 ‘BW West Midland Operations Present and Future’ Tony Harvey, BW West Midlands General Manager Hear first-hand about what‟s going on around our local waterways th

March 11 2009 Branch and Region AGMs - followed by „Get Knotted‟ a Demonstration of fendermaking, by Alan Evans th

April 8 2009 The Making of a TV Series about a Narrowboat restoration project – Sam Green, TV Producer Sam was producer of the Sky TV series about the restoration of a Woolwich Motor boat, Dover NB:Meetings start at 7.30 pm

Winter Walks We have one remaining winter walk this year: st

Sunday Feb 1 : Around Brinklow, Meet at Rose Narrowboats, 10.30am.

For an approx 2 hour walk before lunch, ( or a lunchtime drink), at a local pub.

Your Contacts – Your Committee.

Chairman : Ian Fletcher Treasurer : Anthony Davies Secretary & Editor : Sue Roy Publicity : Alan Bridgman Meetings Organiser: Peter Webb Membership Sec: Greta Russell Minutes Secretary: Muriel Richardson

When we issued our Programme Card in September we seemed to have a good, settled programme - but since then we have had to make a few changes. Firstly in October our speaker cancelled at short notice, but we were fortunately able to replace him with an excellent team from RCR. We had planned the New Year meal at Tom of the Wood, Rowington - then TOTW was suddenly closed. Although now it has reopened, at the time, we decided to make the change to the Durham Ox - considered a canalside location as it lies above Shrewley tunnel. Finally Eric Wood had agreed to talk to us in April, temporarily forgetting it was his wife‟s birthday. So we have swapped the April and May meetings to make sure Eric remains in his wife‟s good books. Our autumn meetings have all been wellattended, please continue to support us in our new venue in 2009.

I am sure that by now you all know that our former Warwickshire Branch and West Midlands Region Chairman Clive Henderson now has the “Top” job as our National Chairman. I know that he has many ideas to tackle with his usual enthusiasm in these challenging times. Despite his new role we still see Clive at as many Branch meetings as possible and he will continue to take a keen interest in local activities.

Sue Roy – Editor.

Leamington Canal Festival 2009. th

The 4 biennial Leamington Canal Festival will be held on and around the Grand Union canal in „Old Town‟ over the May Bank-holiday weekend, May 2th 4 2009. As previously visiting boats will moor either side of Clemens Street Bridge (Bridge 40). On rd Sunday May 3 Clemens Street will be closed to traffic and become the venue for a street-market and entertainment. On Saturday and Sunday evenings visiting boaters will be welcome at the nearby Leamington Priors Club.

Entry forms and further information can be obtained from :- Robert Nash, Clerk to the Town Council, Town Hall, The Parade, Royal Leamington Spa. CV32 4AT. E-mail: rnash@spacomputers.com

Long Itchington Stockton Warwick Stratford Leamington Coventry Ballsall Common

01926 - 81 54 13 01926 - 81 49 80 01926 - 49 78 45 01789 - 26 71 34 01926 - 42 27 64 02476 - 44 27 01 01676 - 53 45 69

Bear In Mind:

(Notes from the Chairman)

I guess that, for many reasons, most of us are glad to see the back of 2008. I also suspect that - despite all the dire economic predictions around – we all cling to a slender hope that, in waterway terms at least, things will not be quite so bad in 2009. BW have thankfully repaired the Stourbridge breach well within original time and cost estimates, but they – along with EA and local authorities - face ever tightening budgets; so even the optimists amongst us may soon despair. However…..

We are about to witness the inauguration of a new US President, and one that – in his rhetoric at least - bears comparison with another Democrat, inaugurated forty eight years ago. Understandably you may well ask what this has got to do with waterway activity in Warwickshire here and now. Well for me the most memorable part of JFK‟s 1961 inauguration was his oft-quoted phrase “and so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”. Change Americans to IWA members, and country to waterways and you‟ll probably detect my drift. Our waterways don‟t „belong‟ to BW or EA, they belong to us all; and it‟s up to all of us to stop them deteriorating. Obviously at regional and national levels we must continue lobbying to secure funding; but at our local level we can also contribute – not least by using our waterways, and the services around them.

Whether you‟re a boater, or simply enjoy bank-side activities, there are two local events that you can support next year. The fourth biennial Leamington Canal Festival will be held over the „May Day‟ weekend on the GU in Leamington „Old Town‟ (see over): and in addition, for the first time for many years, Stratford will be holding a River Festival, over the first weekend in July – more details in our next edition.

Kennedy‟s speech went on to appeal to “fellow citizens of the world” and to talk of what „we‟ can achieve together. I don‟t think that there‟s anyone around now in BW with the age and experience to recall hearing the original speech, and it‟s more likely to be the economic imperative than being altruistic converts to cooperation that‟s causing BW to think this way; but for the sake of the waterways themselves we must now – more than ever - co-operate with each other.

AGM We encourage you all to attend the AGM. Also we do need new committee members. This involves up to 6 formal committee meetings per year, plus whatever you can do to help with branch activities, publicity, fund-raising etc.

Nominations are required 2 weeks prior to the AGM to Sue Roy ( details below ).

Also any items you want to raise at The AGM must also be submitted by this th ) date.( Feb 25

Two immediate areas of co-operation come to mind. One is th over the weekend of 28-29 March when, as part of the National Waterway Clean-up, we will undertake litter-picks and „towpath-tidys‟ around „our patch‟. More immediately we are undertaking a survey of waterside facilities (lack of) in our region. If any of you know of „gaps‟ - eg. excessive cruising times between ~ say water-points, sanitary-stations or winding-holes - then please let us know. Also if any of you towpath-walkers know of particularly bad stretches then we‟d also like to hear from you. In the present climate of course BW cannot promise to do everything at once – but at least collectively we can determine where future, local priorities lie.

As we raise our glasses to each other this new-year perhaps we should note that our glasses are still at least half-full, and therefore nowhere near half-empty. Happy new-year.

Ian Fletcher

The IWA may not agree with opinions expressed here in this newsletter, but encourages its publication as a matter of interest. Nothing herein may be construed as a matter of policy, or an official announcement, unless otherwise stated. The Association accepts no liability for any material contained herein.

Editor :

Sue Roy, 46 The Butts, Warwick, CV34 4ST Phone :- 01926 – 49 78 45.

The IWA is a registered charity ( No. 212342 ), founded in 1946.

Supported by donations & members‟ subscriptions, it campaigns for conservation, use, maintenance, restoration, & development of the inland waterways of Great Britain - for the benefit of all.

Registered & General Office: - Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, Herts. HP5 1WA. Phone: 01494 - 783 453.

Website :- www.waterways.org.uk.

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