BEAR ESSENTIALS The Newsletter of : -
IWA Warwickshire Branch Issue No. 33 – April 2012.
Our Summer Programme - 2012 April 15
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Sunday Walk Stroud to Brimscombe Port Meet 10:30 am Cotswold Canals Trust Visitor Centre, Stroud, Gloucestershire. Grid Ref: SO848052
May 9
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Wednesday Evening Meeting* ‘The Recovery of Raymond’ by Steve Miles Raymond, the last wooden working boat (butty) built in Britain, has over the last few years been lovingly restored by ‘Friends of Raymond’. Steve is not only one of Raymond’s leading ‘friends’ but also has a surprising other hidden talent. Come along to his fascinating talk*, the last of our season, and be prepared to be surprised. [*Sports ConneXion 7:30pm]
May 19
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Saturday Walk, Around Foxton Locks & Inclined Plane Meet 10:30 am Visitor Centre Car Park Grid Ref: SP693897
June 13
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Wednesday Evening Walk around Lapworth Meet 7:30 pm Brome Hall Lane Car Park Grid Ref: SP186710
July 11
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Wednesday Evening Picnic and optional walk at Newbold Comyn, Leamington Spa Meet 7:30 pm - Bring your own food and drink. If weather is inclement, we may adjourn to the Newbold Comyn Arms. Park near the Swimming Baths. Grid Ref: SP330659
August 19 Sunday Walk Around Brinklow – more Oxford loops Meet 10:30 am Stretton Wharf GR: SP440810 th
The Rhodes Thomas Collections. To contribute to the costs of archiving storage containers for storing the 22,000 or more slides in this collection; we are now starting to sell some of the hundreds of waterway, railway and industrial archaeology books also bequeathed to the Branch. For the public, this exercise will begin at the rd th Braunston Historic Boat Gathering on June 23 /24 , However, Branch members will be able to see and th purchase these in advance - at our May 9 meeting.
Editorial 1: This year’s Branch activities started with a New Year’s Day walk around Hawkesbury Junction – which concluded with good lunchtime food and drink at The Greyhound. Two weeks later we held the Branch’s Annual Dinner at The White Lion at Radford Semele, the food and service was excellent. The whole evening was thoroughly enjoyed by some 40 members. Unfortunately, our February 5th walk around Boddington reservoir had to be postponed at the last minute due to a heavy snowfall. It was rearranged for the following week, when a hardy group of us returned to the frozen reservoir to see its low level, and begin to appreciate the problems to be faced by boaters crossing the Oxford canal summit this summer. Further details and photos can be seen on the Warwickshire page of the IWA web-site – take a look, its scary ! On this mixed note of pleasure and concern I now hand the editors ‘baton’ back to Ian Fletcher.
Sue Roy Editorial 2: Thank you Sue, not just for all your work editing Bear Essentials, and for ‘keeping the seat warm’ for me over the last nine years, but may I also echo the words of Ian Jackson our Chairman (over the page) and thank you for a remarkable 15 years of service on the Branch committee in a number of roles. As both Sue above, and Ian overleaf have said, one – if not our major - concern this summer will be water supply. Fortunately, although they cannot guarantee us water, BW/CRT appear to be more pro-active in dealing with the problem this year, and at least their lock-restrictions have been issued well in advance, and unlike last year will not catch boaters ‘on the hop’. Our Branch area straddles three of the new Local Partnership areas, and we are perhaps not as badly affected as colleagues to the south and east of us. Much of the watery ‘lifeblood’ of our local waterways comes from the Birmingham plateau, where fortunately, probably due to the unfortunate decline of the manufacturing industry in the West Midlands’ the aquifers appear to remain in a healthy state. One easy way to dispel much of the gloom that seems to be around at the moment, is not to think too much about water shortages but to look on the left here and see the programme of events and activities that Richard Sanders and Peter Webb have planned for us. Finally, following on from our highly successful ‘lock-ransom’ at Calcutt last year; we are planning to repeat the exercise again this summer. However, due to drought restrictions, Calcutt opening hours will be severely curtailed, and in any case the locks will now be manned by CRT volunteers; we are therefore looking at alternative locations. Having recently held a successful work-party on the Hatton Flight, we are considering manning the top four locks there. No final decisions have yet been made – stay close for further information.
Ian Fletcher.