The Newsletter of : -
IWA Warwickshire Branch December 2017.
Who’d ‘a’ thought it ? Is it really sixteen years since we launched Bear Essentials ? Back in 2001 we planned to move our monthly meetings to a new, more customer-friendly, venue and at the same time wanted to improve our attendances. We assembled a stellar cast of speakers, including:- Chris Coburn, Audrey Smith and Garth Allan - all before Christmas! We wrote to all branch-members with a copy of BE-1 – a single-page, text-only newsletter that simply amplified the dry ‘one-liners’ on the Programme Card. We told members a bit about the speakers and their topics. We ‘sold’ the meetings - and doubled the average attendance within a year. Old hands may remember that in our first edition (see left) we also floated the then quite advanced idea of asking whether branch members would like to receive BE by e-mail. This caused a bit of a stir in some circles, not least because Head Office was (quite understandably) worried about the proliferation, and control, of such databases. However, with your agreement, we pressed on, like purposeful pioneers - and just did it ! Images: Top:
BE-49 Aug 2017, Our last edition,
Middle: BE-38 Dec. 2013. Our first enlarged, Illustrated edition. Bottom: BE-01, Sept 2001 Our first edition. th
Any ‘ 50 ’ is a cause for celebration, and an inevitable ingredient of that celebration is looking-back. I make no apology for doing that - both here above and again on page 3. However, our fiftieth comes at an important time for the Association, and shaping our future is not just-as important – it’s even more so – and that’s why elsewhere in this newsletter we look forward. On page 2 we look at the near future - with our new-year’s events-programme; but on page 4 we take a longerterm, wider-aspect look at our waterways role. The future always starts in the past, and looking both back and forward not only helps to produce a better evolution, it also creates a better ability to differentiate between babies and bathwater. As no-doubt by now you know; at our September AGM a new logo was unveiled. Personally, despite understanding concerns of members who paddle or sail, I like the propeller, I think that it spins together well the different strands of our work - but for me it’s the text that’s the problem.
Success bred success, and we introduced more activities – notably walks and work parties. Soon two sides of A4 weren’t enough to cover what we had to say. So four years ago we re-vamped BE and produced the illustrated 4-side version that you receive today. We also introduced a 3-year rotation of blue, green and red identifying colours. Were we pioneers yet again? – well ‘ahead of the curve’ that you can now read all about on page 4. I understand the need for uncluttered text, and the confused messages that clutter can send – particularly to that all-important ‘new blood’ that we need to attract. But I am rather concerned at the degree to which the contribution of the Association’s membership – through the reduction in the size and positioning of the ‘A’ word – appears to be denigrated. And I believe that – just as CRT found with their initial attitude towards boaters – we will find that it is our existing members who will be needed to ‘keep the propeller turning’ – at least until all that new blood has been turned into memberships. However, it’s important to realise - particularly with the pressing issues that we face today, such as EA’s treatment of its Anglian waterways; and, nearer to home, even CRTs Chasewater problems (see page 4); - that any perceived shortcomings in our new logo design must be treated as a few drops of ‘spilt-milk’.
Ian Fletcher
Editor.
Bear Bones:
Bear in Mind:
An outline of upcoming activities.
Carole’s Considerations.
Our New Year/Spring Programme of Activities. Unless otherwise stated all evening events take place at:
The Sports ConneXion, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry CV8 3FL All evening meetings start at 7:30 pm. Sunday, January 7th 2018:
A Stroll Around Southam.
Meet at 10:30am. at the Wood Street Car Park in Southam, CV47 1PP. For an easy, 3-mile stroll to and from this little known local gem – concluding with a drink or lunch at The Bowling Green Inn in Southam.
Wednesday, January 10th 2018: Branch Annual Dinner,
- @
Le Bistrot Pierre Stratford, CV37 7LT. Although most tickets have now been sold, a few places may still be left. For the latest info. phone Carole or Nick Nicholson on: 01926 – 855 228.
Sunday, February 4th 2018:
A Sutton-Stop Stomp.
Meet at 10:30am at The Greyhound at Hawkesbury, CV6 6DF for a 4½ mile circular walk incorporating both the Oxford and Coventry Canals.,
Wednesday, February 14th 2018: New Life for an Old Loop. by ‘Old Mortonian’ - Ian Lauder, Ian - best known to most of us as the proprietor of the Canalchef Bistro in Hillmorton - is a member of the village’s Civic Group; but its in his role as the leading light in the restoration of the old Hillmorton loop (probably the quickest and easiest restoration on our patch) that he talks to us tonight.
Wednesday, March 14th 2018:
Branch AGM: - followed by: ‘Down the Drain’ After the brief formalities of the meeting, we’ll join Richard and Jackie Sanders aboard Mad Hatter – as they explore the Navigable Delphs, Dykes, Ditches and Drains of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.
Sunday, March 18th 2018:
A Canal Clean-up in Nuneaton.
A joint work-party with Lichfield Branch Meet – at.9:30 for a 10:00am start (till 1:00pm). Park in the car-park by the Park in Tomkinson Rd. Nuneaton (CV10 8BH ?) for this innovative event on the Coventry Canal in the vicinity of Bridge 21. Further info. available in due course – at www.waterways.org.uk/warwickshire - or by info.warwickshire@waterways.org.uk - or at prior meetings.
Wednesday, April 11th 2018:
The Coventry Canal.
A film by Brian Langtry. In February we walked it, in March we cleaned it; and now in April – in this professionally produced film - through images, interviews and music, we can find out more about the long history of this local canal of ours.
Sunday, April 22nd 2018:
Walk along the Buckingham Canal. More information in our next edition.
Additional Work Party info.* CRT-WM Towpath task-force. st
A) 1 Monday & Wednesday of each month - Hatton B) 2nd Thursday & Friday of each month - Stratford C) 3rd Thursday & Saturday of each month - Lapworth
*Note: For the most up-to-date information on Branch work-parties (and all other Branch activities) see our Branch page on the IWA web-site.
<< www.waterways.org.uk/warwickshire >>
As most of you will probably be reading this before Christmas, I’ll start by wishing you all the best for a happy Christmas & New Year. I hear very cold weather is forecast so there may not be much winter boating. Nevertheless, we can still make use of our canals by walking or cycling to work off excess food. We’ve had a varied start to our season. A rather nervous Sue Blocksidge started us off with an update on volunteering with CRT. Despite concern that she may be tempting us away from our own volunteering - her talk was well received. It was more about how the Trust is proceeding with the use of more volunteers, and the variety of work they are doing. Our October meeting saw Bob Williams give us a background to, and an update on, the restoration of the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals. It was interesting to hear about such a local restoration and to find that there are lengths of it that can be walked. Perhaps a future walk for us if someone will organise it!? October also saw us busy with our canal clean-up in Leamington. We had the usual haul of supermarket trolleys, bikes and assorted other items. There were 83 volunteers from many groups and local residents. Then we had our offside tidy-up at Hatton. The path is well used, and appreciated. The length between locks 30 & 31 still needs more work & trampling at every opportunity - to level it. In November Nick Holmes from the Lapworth History Group gave us an excellent talk on the history of the development of canals in the Rowington & Lapworth area. It was interesting to hear of the politics and personalities involved in these ventures – giving us a very different perspective on our local junction. Also in November we walked along Stratford Greenway and the River Avon. Once again we had beautiful weather, followed by a great lunch at The Red Lion. One last reminder: If you want to come to our New Year th Dinner on Jan 10 at Bistrot Pierre in Stratford, and haven’t yet booked, please e-mail me immediately so that we can update our booking. carole.nicholson@waterways.org.uk
Carole Nicholson
Chairman
Bear-faced Lines:
Removing paint or applying paint
Raising Funds through â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;gentle persuasionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; !
A small selection of our activities and achievements 2001 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2017.
Removing vegetation, or planting Vegetation
Winter walks and summer picnics
From protests to celebrations
Re-uniting Sonia Rolt and George Smith
Receiving cheques, and Distributing cheques The Cressy Cruise, Braunston handover Receiving a Branch Achievement Award
From celebrating the past,
to
painting the way to the future.
Bear with us:
Regional Round-up.
Friends, Neighbours and Afterthoughts.
From our Region Chairman:
BCN Concerns:
“IWA is staid, complacent and irrelevant”, are some of the criticisms levelled at IWA over recent years.
We were recently staggered to find that Chasewater reservoir hadn’t supplied water to the BCN since April – due to broken supply valves. Our reaction to this surprising news was mixed. We were delighted that CRT had - by virtually draining Edgbaston reservoir, and a large pumping and back-pumping bill - kept the BCN open, but disappointed to find that the problem has not been sorted. Staffs County Council owns the reservoir and the dam, and CRT owns the water - but ownership of the valves appears to be a problem. Worryingly, Natural England has also now become involved in what is turning into a ‘delicate dance’. Let’s all hope that it’s sorted before litigation looms.
Those of you who attended the IWA national AGM at Langley Mill at the end of September will know that this is far from the truth. There we heard two excellent presentations which blew away these opinions by introducing the “New Vision for IWA” the result of the Trustees wish to ensure that IWA is as relevant to the future of our waterways as it has been to the “glorious” past. In a nutshell, our vision is for “a thriving, growing network of sustainable inland waterways for everyone”. You may have read about this in the November issue of Waterways. We are unique in the waterways world. We have and are still achieving great things. No other single organisation has achieved so much, but we seem habitually to “hide our light under a bushel”. We do not shout enough about our current achievements. Just like our current logo, we seem to merge into the background and allow others to claim the glory. “It is our spirit, determination and vision which will protect and restore our waterways for future generations to discover and enjoy”. WE are the champions of ALL Britain's canals and navigable rivers. In order to achieve this, IWA needs to be strong and demonstrably unified and our new logo will help to propel us forward to continue the fight for the future of our wonderful inland waterways. Our old logo was revised about 10 years ago to remove the sword (Excalibur) which was considered to be not PC. Unfortunately, the ripple effect on the letters IWA camouflaged these letters, and so that logo did not lend itself for use on online media or on anything other than a plain background. It also did not represent the whole of IWA - which includes: Waterway Recovery Group and Essex Waterways to show us all as one strong family. I have to tell you that when I was first shown the embryonic new logo some 10 months ago, I was distinctly unimpressed. However, having lived with its development, I have come to really like it and all it stands for. I hope that you too will learn to appreciate it as I do.
Helen Whitehouse.
An Editorial Post Script: As mentioned on page-1, and also here on the left by Helen Whitehouse; our Association is (thankfully) looking forward, and part of this exercise has involved a ‘re-branding’ operation. This is becoming most noticeable through our eye-catching new logo – as seen at the bottom of this page. But one strange ‘babies and bathwater’ facet of this exercise is the change of our print font to ‘Georgia’. This text contains Serifs – they’re the ‘twiddly-bits’ on the ends of these letters – that went out of fashion a generation ago. Supposedly they lead to faster reading, but they’re
not as clean or crisp as modern ‘sans-serif’ fonts – such as this Arial – which we’ve used up until now. It also transpires that these ‘twiddly fonts’ – such as Georgia here - are more readable on smart-phone screens – a valid reason to use them in that situation. However, at the moment I’m sure that most of us read on laptop / desktop screens or even hard-copy, , and for the time being that’s where your feedback tells us we should stay – not least because of one of the strangest facets of Georgia can be seen below. Look at the post-codes or phone numbers for both Head Office and myself. Yes, you can believe your eyes; this is how Georgia automatically treats all numerals !
We therefore intend to carry on producing BE in Arial. ‘Translation packages’ should be considered by and for those who wish to see things differently. I’m sorry to have ‘gone on a bit’ about all this, but I assure
you that (if I’ve not been shot in the meantime) in our next edition we’ll return to concentrating on the realworld, waterway issues that are truly relevant and important to us here ‘on the patch’ in Warwickshire.
Ian Fletcher. 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 of the material contained herein. Editor: Ian Fletcher, 4 Village Hall Cottages, CV47 9QH Phone :01926 – 815 413. E-mail : newsletter.warwickshire@waterways.org.uk
Registered Office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA Tel: 01494 783453 Web: www.waterways.org.uk The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee. Registered in England no. 612245. Registered as a charity no. 212342
For local contact on all other Branch activities please e-mail: < info.warwickshire@waterways.org.uk > For up to date info. between BE editions visit our web page: < www.waterways.org.uk/warwickshire > Please inform Head Office of any e-mail address changes.