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CHESTER & DISTRICT BRANCH AUTUMN 2012
Editor: Margaret Pitney
Editor: Position vacant
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REPORT OF THE BRANCH CHAIRMAN Over the weekend of 23rd & 24th June 2012 the Branch, with the River Weaver Navigation Society, Broken Cross Boat Club and Development of the Arts in Northwich, organised the Northwich River Weaver Festival. The Event attracted 120 boats, a large area of Trade and Society Stands plus Brass and Rock Bands resulting in a high attendance from the Northwich public. It is important to highlight that an event such as this does not happen overnight; the planning started 12 months ago when the organisations started to talk to each other and British Waterways. Then followed monthly committee meetings plus additional meetings with interested parties and a huge number of emails and phone calls. Once the plans were in place we needed people on the ground to put them into action; this started from 1st June with the site being prepared and the pontoons put in place for berthing the boats. All over the weekend people worked very hard to ensure everything ran smoothly and to iron out any problems. It is impossible for me to list everyone involved in this newsletter but the Branch owes a debt of gratitude and many thanks to those who willingly gave their time and expertise to ensure the success of the event over the weekend. The last three events, Anderton, Chester and Northwich, have all involved additional partners resulting in attracting a wider audience to the canals but equally have shown that the Branch cannot do these events on our own because of the lack of manpower and funding. It will be interesting to see if there is an event in two years’ time and if so where it will be. It will also be interesting to find out what the future holds now Canal & River Trust are running the Waterways. They officially took over on 2nd July with the formal launch taking part on 12th July. So far they have created a higher profile but will it last? I hope so.
Brian Phillips
As space is limited in this flyer, more news will be published in the next edition of the magazine. It should be noted that the views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of th IWA but are included as being of interest to our members. The IWA is a registered charity No.212342.
NEWS SNIPPETS
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Google’s Street View comes to Canals Stretches of our canals, including two wonders of the waterways, now feature on Street View. Earlier this summer Google’s Street View trike took images of the Kennet & Avon Canal between Devizes and Semington (including the Caen Hill lock flight) and the Llangollen Canal between Horseshoe Falls and Chirk Bank including Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. If you would like to suggest a location, email Richard.—gowling@canalrivertrust.org;uk or call him on 01452 318045 Richard New Canal at Chester Zoo A replica canal with balance beams is now part of the Zoo’s conversation garden. This contains two of our rarest waterplants and highlights the role that the canal and river network plays in providing wildlife habitat. It also aims to raise awareness of the behind the scenes conservation work the Trust is helping to coordinate. National ecologist Chris John said ‘It is very important that we continue to protect our existing canal habitats as these are now some of the most important sites in the country’. Museum & Attractions group appoints acting head The National Waterways Museum, Gloucester Waterways Museum, Canal Museum Stoke Bruerne Anderton Boat Lift Visitor Centre and Standedge Tunnel Visitor Centre are to come together to be managed as the Museums & Attractions Group. Senior waterway manager Debbie Lumb becomes acting head of museums & attractions reporting to head of governance services, Roger Hanbury. In addition Debbie will continue her work with the operations team. Interpretative Panels in Chester Chester Canal Heritage Trust ‘s latest project, led by Ray Buss, has been the installation of three interpretive boards along the canal in Chester. These can be seen at Chester Canal Basin, Cow Lane Bridge and Hoole Lane Lock. and have been made possible by generous contributions from Councillors Bob Rudd, Sam Dixon and David Robinson out of budgets provided to them by Cheshire West and Chester Council. Sutton Weaver Swing Bridge Cheshire West and Chester Council and C&RT are to seek an urgent meeting with the Government on the future of the 90-year-old Sutton Weaver Swing Bridge which carries the A56 over the River Weaver. This will need major restrengthening work in the future. They are hoping to involve local MP Graham Evans in talks with the Government. Councillors are deeply concerned about the current situation and hope that a joint approach to Government will provide the help needed to address what could well prove to be a major problem.
3 NORTHWICH RIVER WEAVER FESTIVAL On behalf of the Rally Committee, IWA Chester & District Branch, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped out during our recent Festival and our Partners who helped with the organisation of the event. In particular a very special thank you to John Tackley, Chairman of the River Weaver Navigation Society, who also undertook the Chairmanship of the Festival and worked so hard to ensure the success of the event and in particular organising the superb VIP trip from Anderton to Northwich and arranging for the Roberts Bakery Brass Band to perform on top of the m.v.Princess Katherine which certainly made a superb entrance on arrival, even though it had just started to rain. Thanks must also go to DAN – Development of the Arts in Northwich - who organised all the entertainment and bar facilities and the Broken Cross Cruising Club who helped to clear the site prior to the event. The event was officially opened by David Briggs, the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire who then presented 4 Queen’s Diamond Jubilee 2012 Mugs to Katherine Dewar the 11 year old schoolgirl from Chester who won the Blue Peter competition to design the Jubilee Logo. She attended with her little sister, Eleanor, and her parents David and Debbie Dewar. The mugs were brought by narrowboat Lindsay, from Stoke-on-Trent and were the first cargo to go down the Anderton Lift since it re-opened 10 years ago. We were very lucky with the weather considering many events had Photo Gillian Bolt to be cancelled this year and the whole site was buzzing with stands, events and the public turnout was excellent. As space is limited for a full report you can see more details in the latest edition of Waterways and once again our sincere thanks to everyone for their support. Lesley Taylor Rally Secretary
GRAND DRAW PRIZEWINNERS 1st Prize 2nd Prize 3rd Prize 4th Prize 5th Prize 6th Prize 7th Prize
Day Boat £100 £50 Argos Gift Card £30 M & S Gift Card £20 Boots Gift Card Cross Stitch picture Planter
8th Prize 9th Prize 10th Prize
Flask Toiletries Pack of mugs
Ray and Gwynneth Buss Dave Pritchard Helen Forkin Steve Pemberton Cindy Seiler Ian Smalley C A Cooper (donated to Branch for future raffle) Audrey Smith Mary Sprackling Ian Hacking
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IWA Waterway Walks: See Page 6 IWA Branch Meetings: 9 October: ‘From Westminster to the People’ Progress and plans for the Canal & River Trust Tony Hales CBE, Chair of the Canal & River Trust 13 November: ‘Life as a Mersey River Pilot’ Stuart Wood, Broadcaster and retired Mersey River Pilot 11 December: ‘Four Countries and One Summer with a Wilderness Boat’ Jeanne and Derek Smith. Sherry & mince pies and a bumper surprise raffle 8 January ‘The Rewards and Pitfalls of restoring Spey, an Historic Narrowboat’ Tom Kitching All meetings take place in the Tom Rolt Centre at the Boat Museum, Ellesmere Port, at 7.45 pm. All are welcome, free of charge Boat Museum Society Meetings: 21 September Worcester-Ilkeston Centenaries Latest news of their centenary journeys 19 October ‘Heritage Boatyard—foundation, development and work in progress.’ Steve Stamp 16 November ‘A Brummagen Lad.’ Barnie Stanton 21 December ‘Early days of Society at Ellesmere Port’ and Xmas Social Di Skilbeck 18 January ‘Tales from the River Lock, Chester.’ Ray Buss and Geoff Taylor All meetings take place in the Tom Rolt Centre at the Boat Museum, Ellesmere Port at 7.30 pm. Open to all and free of charge
Chester Canal Heritage Trust Meetings: 7 November: ‘Facing Front’ Some tales of Canalside Development in Chester. Locally based architect John Tweed and landscape design consultant Martin Band 5 December: ‘The Wolverhampton Connection’ Cath Turpin of the Boat Museum Society The history of the corrugated iron works in Ellesmere Port and its extensive use of canal transport PLEASE NOTE NEW VENUE - St Theresa’s Parish Centre, Blacon Ave, Chester CH1 5BU This is about a quarter of a mile west of the Crematorium and Police Station in Blacon. Talks start at 8 pm and there is a bar and a large car park. All welcome—members free, non-members £1.50
5 REPORT FROM THE SANKEY CANAL RESTORATION SOCIETY (SCARS) Just some notes on what’s been happening on the Sankey since the last report in Chester Packet. Mid Mersey Sustainable Transport Bid: First, the good news is that St.Helens MBC have landed a £3.12 million grant for the Mid Mersey Sustainable Transport Plan which involves cross boundary paths between Halton, Warrington and St.Helens, this includes upgrades of the towpath along the Sankey Canal and other adjoining routes. Canal bank collapse between Hey Lock and Newton Brook: Some bad news now; the towpath wall has collapsed in a number of places between Hey lock and Newton Brook. SCARS are working with the local authorities to try to find funding to rectify this problem. HLF Bid: News of the Heritage Lottery Bid is that although they think our idea to restore the canal between Spike Island and Fiddlers Ferry is a good one, they would like us to go away and reconsider certain aspects of our bid. Fund Raising: During the summer months SCARS sales stall attended various shows and waterway festivals around the northwest. At the beginning of June we attended the Willow Park Rural Craft Display in Newton-le Willows organised by the St.Helens Ranger Service. This is always a well attended event with plenty of interest shown in our stall with the canal being local to the area. At the end of June we were in Northwich for the River Weaver Festival, which in spite of the weather (strong winds and rain on the Friday) proved to be an outstanding event with boats packing into the moorings and the stalls doing good business. This was an excellent advertisement for the waterways movement and all praise most go to the Festival Committee for their efforts in making this such a memorable event. August bank holiday weekend and its the Preston Guild Waterways Festival at Haslam Park, Ashton-on-Ribble and a chance to meet up with old friends from IWA North Lancs and Cumbria Branch. We arrived on Friday afternoon to set up and the weather was dry. After days of heavy rain, the ground was wet to say the least but all credit to the organisers our patch was reasonably dry, then came Saturday with the rain and did it rain; Sunday was fine and dry after an early morning shower and the people of Preston came out to give their support to the event and everything seemed to be set for a good day on Monday, but then down came the rain again and put an end to proceedings with most stalls packing up at dinner time and heading for home. This again was a credit to the volunteer efforts of the IWA North Lancs and Cumbria Branch who had been planning this event for over a year and for it to be disrupted by the weather just shows there is no justice in this world. Even so trade was good and everyone seemed to be enjoying the proceedings in spite of the weather. The next event we will be attending is the Vintage Vehicle and Fairground Organ Rally at Victoria Park, Widnes on 29th & 30th September. See you there. Colin Greenall
SCARS Speakers for Club Open Nights: 27 September
Liverpool Overhead Railway and Ferries (film):
25 October
The Widnes Chemical Industry: Bob Roach
29 November
The Titanic—the |People’s Story: Paul Jones
December
No meeting
Ron Martin
All meetings are on the last Thursday of the month at 7.30 pm. A full report from Merseyside Branch will appear in the January Chester Packet.
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BRANCH WATERWAY WALKS November 2012 and January 2013 All walks take place on the 4th Thursday of the month commencing at 10.15 am and are open to IWA members and non-members alike. Each walk starts and finishes at a pub. Anyone requiring lunch at the pub at the end of the walk can book his or her meal just before we set out on the walk. Halfway through each walk we stop for welcome ‘bring your own’ refreshments.
November 22nd. – Barbridge Starting at the Barbridge Inn, Barbridge, Nantwich CW5 6AY, just east of the A51 about 3 miles north west of Nantwich town centre, this walk is about 3.5 miles long and covers parts of the Shropshire Union and Llangollen canals and the open country between. Map reference OS Explorer 257 615 567. January 24th – Anderton After leaving the Stanley Arms, Old Road, Anderton, Northwich CW9 6AG (about 1.25 miles north of Northwich town centre) this walk follows the Trent &Mersey Canal, heading for Witton Brook before returning via the River Weaver and the Anderton Nature Park. It is about 3.6 miles long. Map Ref OS Explorer 267 647 753. Anyone requiring further details about these walks or any of the other branch waterway walks should contact Ron Evans on 01928 788 673 (mobile 07900 307 515) or Margaret Pitney on 0151 608 6487 (mobile 07850 278 719)
CHESTER & DISTRICT BRANCH WELCOMES THE FOLLOWING NEW MEMBERS Mr J Munro Mr F and Mrs V Ball Mr D Rickets Mr A Mooney Mr G Randall Mr J H Gibson
Maghull Chester Liverpool Prenton Northwich Frodsham
We look forward to meeting you all at the Boat Museum (see programme on Page 4) and on our monthly walks (details above)