Bear Essentials No 32 December 2011

BEAR ESSENTIALS The Newsletter of : -

IWA Warwickshire Branch Issue No. 32 – December 2011.

Our Winter/Spring Programme The Sports Connexion, Ryton Coventry CV8 3FL January 11th 2012 Annual Dinner, The White Lion, Radford Semele We have a reserved area for around 50 people in this Inn lying within walking distance of the Grand Union Canal.

We have negotiated a special menu for £16.00 per head.

A few places remain. Ring Tina Jackson 01788 891545

February 8th 2012: The Grand Canal of China

by Liam D’Arcy-Brown In this illustrated talk Liam will describe a 1,115-mile journey made in 2006 from Hangzhou to Beijing along China’s Grand Canal on commercial freight barges providing an intriguing insight into a side of China seldom seen. This trip was the subject of his second book on China ‘The Emperor's River'.

March 14th 2012 Branch and Region AGM followed by: The Daventry Canal: A short presentation on this new proposal to link Daventry to the GU, east of Braunston Tunnel.

April 11th 2012 Boat Family History by Lorna York Lorna York is vice-chair of The Friends of the Canal Museum, Stoke Bruerne and is a genealogist investigating the life history of those involved with working boats.

Walks 

Sunday Jan 1st: Around Hawkesbury Junction Meet 10.30 am The Greyhound (SP362846)

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Sunday Feb 5th: Boddington Reservoir Meet 10.30 am Reservoir Car Park (SP493535)

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Sunday Mar 18th: Oxford Canal Loop by Wolfhampcote Church Meet 10-30 am Lay-by on A45 west of Braunston (SP532664)

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Sunday April 15th: From Brimscombe Port, Stroud Brimscombe (SO662032)

Editorial We have again had very good attendance at our autumn meetings. After starting in September with the ever-popular Harry Arnold, we enjoyed talks on the Hereford and Gloucester restoration progress and Lifts and Inclined Planes of the World.

The H&G talk prompted the committee to plan a branch visit in the spring primarily to visit the Hereford end – no firm date yet but lookout for details at meeting and on the website.

In December around 40 people by were mixed up by Ian Fletcher to form evenly matched teams for his exceptionally well prepared Waterways Quiz.

National Chairman Clive Henderson joined a different team for each round. Seasonal refreshments were enjoyed by all. We were also able to take the opportunity to present a cheque for £500 from the year’s fund-raising efforts to Roger Clay representing the Stratford and Warwick Waterways Trust towards the feasibility study. A further £250 will be donated to the Inglesham Lock appeal.

Our newly introduced autumn walks were generally well attended. Reports and pictures can be seen in our Branch pages on the IWA website.

Small group of Branch Volunteers continue to hold work parties which contribute greatly to both rural and urban canal corridor improvements. Details of these are also available on the website.

Finally, I have been recommended a good read : Narrowboat Girl by Annie Murray is a fictional tale set in Birmingham around the BCN.

Sue Roy

Thank You Member orders for Christmas cards and calendars increased this year. In addition, extra stock ordered enabled members who missed the order deadline to make purchases.

All items were sold by the beginning of December and a grand total of £210 was raised for Branch funds. A very big THANK YOU to everyone for making this the best total ever raised through Branch sales. Can we exceed this in 2012!

Bear in Mind:

Notes from the chairman.

As ever, this issue of Bear Essentials marks the time of year both to look back at our achievements and forward to the challenges of the year ahead.

Undoubtedly the biggest change is to the way many of our Inland navigations will be managed. IWA has done all it can to ensure a good start for the Canal and River Trust as BW will become in April.

Concerns remain over funding for the new charity, but any shortfall will only become critical over a period of years or when a major structure fails. The biggest worry for next summer may well be availability of water. BW managed to scrape through the autumn with very few closures, but the dry summer and autumn has left many reservoirs completely exhausted which means we may enter 2012 with little or no stored water for the coming season.

feasibility study for the Higher Avon has been let to the well-known consultants, Halcrow and the results are expected to be made public by the middle of 2012.

The re-opening of the Droitwich Barge and Junction Canals last summer marks a very important milestone st in 21 century canal restoration. I encourage you all to consider visiting Droitwich next summer, preferably by boat, but if not to walk the towpath and explore the town, advertising as much as possible that your presence is a result of the navigations being open.

This also applies to Stroud. The Heritage Lottery funded restoration of 6 miles of the Cotswold Canals is finally well underway, with IWA’s national trailboat rally taking place over the Spring Bank Holiday to celebrate progress that will have been made by then. An initial application has been placed for further lottery funding to link the current restoration back to Saul Junction. If successful, it may not be too long before the western 10 miles becomes part of the National Network, so please make a note to support this event . Please also note that IWA are still urgently seeking contributions to the Inglesham Appeal in support of the WRG restoration of this lock.

Canal and River Trust Council Elections

th

Next year marks the 50 anniversary of the re-opening of the lower Avon between Tewkesbury and Evesham by the Lower Avon Navigation Trust (now merged with the Upper Avon Navigation trust as part of ANT). The principal celebration will take place as part of the Evesham River Festival which will happen over the weekend 7/8 July, following on from the now annual Stratford River Festival the weekend before. IWA played a major role in the formation of LANT and the restoration of both the river and the southern Stratford Canal. 50 years on, it remains a success story we can be proud of, so members and friends please come along and join in the celebrations. Whilst on the subject of the Avon, the long awaited contract for a

Our Branch AGM in March will precede the next edition of Bear Essentials so finally, harping back to my article in the last edition, may I remind readers that your committee are always on the lookout for new talent.

To close may I thank members for their loyal support over the last year and wish you all well in 2012.

Ian Jackson .

One important facet of the change from BW to CRT is that CRT will be creating a Council (as a forum to help shape policy and give guidance to The Trustees). Within its initial, total membership of 35, some four positions will be reserved for private boaters. Although IWA's prime concern is for the waterways, we know that some 10,000 of our members are private boaters - who will each have one vote per 12 month boat license. This perversely makes us the largest group of such boaters.

Because of this, a number of individual IWA members are putting themselves forward for election - including our Regional Chairman, Vaughan Welch, and our National Chairman and Branch member, Clive Henderson.

We also believe that a number of newly created 'ad-hoc' groups are backing other individual candidates with narrow-agenda, 'provisional wing' manifestos. It is my belief that the optimum longterm interests of both boaters, and the Waterways as a whole, will best be served by people who have a wider and deeper perspective than candidates with narrower agendas. We urge all boater-members, who are able, to vote for the IWA candidates such as Clive and Vaughan when the time comes in February so to do. Please do not waste this chance to vote, for a candidate that you know, and have access to.

Ian Jackson

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.

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

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

E-mail : - roy154@btinternet.com