August 2010 Bear Essentials

BEAR ESSENTIALS The Newsletter of : -

IWA Warwickshire Branch Issue No. 28 – August 2010.

Our Autumn Programme The Sports Connexion, Ryton, Coventry

All meetings start at 7.30 pm September 8th 2010 ‘The Five Kingdom Tour’ by James Griffin This very entertaining talk will cover the travels of James on his Narrowboat, Ocean Princess by canal, sea and coastal waters to visit England, Scotland, Northern Ireland , Wales and The Isle of Man.

October 13th 2010 ‘My Life on Working Boats’ by Beryl McDowall Tales from her life on working boats including passenger and camping boats as well as freight in the Midlands and London.

November 10th 2010 ‘Progress on the Chesterfield Canal’

Editorial Summer 2010 has been very active in our Branch area with the Stratford River Festival and the Tom Rolt Centenary celebrations as highlights. Unfortunately after a very successful meetings programme last year, the Alan Higgs Centre were unable to continue to offer the charity room rate. so on cost grounds we decided to move our venue to the nearby Sports Connexion at Ryton, I think this will be a satisfactory venue as it was a close second when we chose the Alan Higgs Centre.

Walking with a Purpose Our Branch „Patch‟ covers approx 100 miles of canal.

We are looking to establish a small group of members who will, to their own schedule, „walk the patch‟ in the course of a year - and note the state of each canal and its corridor. We are not looking for „head-down hikers‟ – keen to tick off the miles; nor at the other extreme for „social strollers‟ – more interested in nattering among themselves than noting things around them. The aim is to give to BW regular quantified updates of where we believe shortcomings and potential problems are. We envisage this as a self-organised week-day group in no way conflicting with our other social activities. If you are interested contact Ian Fletcher. 01926 81 5413 Christmas Cards IWA Christmas cards and 2010 Calendars will be onsale at Oct and Nov meetings. Purchasing your cards through the branch aids branch funds. Large orders or specific requests can be ordered in advance from Greta Russell at our September meeting alternatively th contact her directly on 02476 442701 before Sept 15

Sue Roy .

by Geraint Coles

Cambridge to Oxford Punt in support of H4H

The Development Mgr, for the Chesterfield Canal Partnership covers the latest news of the restoration project which is overcoming many obstacles.

On Saturday 26 June Wigrams Marina welcomed the Cambridge to Oxford „punters‟ treated them to hot showers, laundry facilities and a Black Prince hire boat to enjoy a comfortable night‟s sleep.

Also a very welcome barbeque was arranged by Branch members Peter and Maureen Hennesey.

Sunday morning saw 8 Branch members meet the students at Napton and escort them through the flight to Marston Doles. The target was to raise £2,000 for the Help for Heroes charity but we understand that has been exceeded and now stands at well over £4,000. Well done to Toby, Rebecka, Andrew and Karl : 12 days, 200 miles and 113 locks.

To donate visit www.bmycharity.com/V2/punt

December 8th 2010 ‘Get Knotting’ by Colin Grundy, International Guild of Knot Tyers Our own Branch member who was a spectacular crowd puller at the 2009 Stratford River Festival will cover this fascinating subject – including practical tying.

January 12th 2011 Annual Branch Dinner at The Moorings , Leamington Spa

Bear in Mind: In our last issue I told you a little about my waterway interests. In more than one sense I am fast learning exactly what (if reluctantly) I have taken on. It has been a busy summer! Apart from attending three routine West Midland Region committee meetings and chairing a similar number of Warwickshire Branch meetings a lot else has filled my diary.

My term in office started with welcoming the Cressy Cruise re-enactment, celebrating the centenary of LTC (Tom) Rolt‟s birth, into Warwickshire branch territory at Fenny Compton and handing the cruise over to th Northampton Branch at Braunston. On 25 July, Ron and Mary Heritage on their narrowboat “Heron” were back again in Warwickshire territory, this time there was our formal plaque presentation at Hawkesbury.

The following morning our National Chairman, Clive Henderson, arrived bringing Sonia Rolt (Tom Rolt‟s widow) and what a day that proved to be. Sonia had not visited Hawkesbury for many years and was thrilled to be there again. In her youth she had been a World War II recruit to commercial carrying so had known the area well throughout the 1940‟s. She also got to know Robert Longden, a local amateur photographer, and was responsible for saving a valuable archive of his photographs, some of which are on display in Gallery 4 of the Herbert Art Gallery to where we took Sonia after her visit to Hawkesbury.

All this alerted me to the fact that our branch boundaries do NOT line up with the Warwickshire county boundary. Some of you will know where our branch boundaries are on the various canals crossing Warwickshire, but I suspect a number of you, like me, don‟t. Hawkesbury is not in fact our territorial boundary with Lichfield branch and our jurisdiction on the River Avon extends through Worcestershire almost to Tewkesbury.

Ian Fletcher, our former branch chairman, was recently offered a vast collection of slides, books and papers by Ivan Thomas, son of the late Rhodes Thomas who back in the 1960-80‟s was a prominent member of Coventry Canal Society. He explored not only the navigable and abandoned waterways of the UK but also visited some European Navigations.

Arrangements are currently in hand for this huge collection to become the Intellectual Property of IWA and we are very fortunate that the Warwick County Record Office have agreed to house the collection on behalf of IWA. The Record Office operates a scheme using trained volunteers to catalogue collections. We

Notes from the chairman. now urgently need a small group of volunteers to help analyse and catalogue this. Ideally we need members with a wide inland waterway knowledge going back to the 1960‟s and „70‟s. Membership of Coventry Canal Soc, Stratford Canal Soc or one of the original Avon Trusts although by no-means necessary would be an advantage. For further information please contact Ian Jackson.

Ian Jackson.

Treasurer’s Musings People often describe a boat as a „hole in the water that swallows money‟. The same could probably be said of waterways charities!

IWA requires all branches to be financially self sufficient. Any local branch activity that involves expenditure has to be paid for from monies collected from within the branch.

The main item of expenditure is the programme of talks.

For branch members these provide an opportunity for getting together for an interesting and (hopefully!) enjoyable evening. Unfortunately for the treasurer these events are more stressful! as he spends most of the evening wondering whether the proceeds from the begging bowl, raffle, book sales, etc will actually cover the cost of the room hire and any legitimate speakers expenses.

Bear Essentials and the annual programme card are other items of significant expenditure to be paid for from branch funds.

Last year was one of the best financial years the branch has ever enjoyed. A combination of speakers who waived expenses, a well received programme of talks, a good rate for room hire, the Timothy West talk (for which tickets were sold) and money raised at the Stratford River Festival helped to cover branch costs and leave a surplus for donations to waterways causes. Branch members should be very proud of what they achieved in 2009.

From a financial point of view this year is proving more difficult. Rising room costs have brought about a change of venue (but even so room hire is more than it was last year), the general financial climate is making speakers less likely to waive their expenses and the costs of printing and distributing Bear Essentials have risen.

So when you next have an opportunity to donate some of your hard earned coppers to branch funds please do not hesitate – think of the health of your treasurer!

Anthony Davies

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 : 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

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

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