getting oar-ganised

Early arrivals at Market Harborough rally in 1950

Regent’s Canal boat trip in 1950

© Mrs Hilda Weekes ©

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The poster advertises the public meeting and rally at Banbury in 1955

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1950 - First Boat Rally at Market Harborough

Having previously organised car rallies, Tom Rolt suggested a boat rally would be good publicity and involve IWA’s members. The first Boat Rally at Market Harborough, which included an arts festival, was a great success with 120 boats and large numbers of the public. It coincided with the end of Tom Rolt’s involvement in IWA, as the split that had been developing with Robert Aickman proved unbridgeable.

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1950 - Exploring new waterways

With a growing membership, IWA started organising boat trips so that members could discover new waterways. At this time, the Regent’s Canal was a commercial waterway with the public discouraged from using towpaths and access limited. Trips like this provided a glimpse into an otherwise hidden world.

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1955 - Countering the threat from the Board of Survey report

The 1955 Board of Survey report recommended that canals carrying no commercial traffic should be ‘for disposal’. This threatened closure of, among others, the Southern Oxford, Llangollen, Macclesfield and Lancaster canals, which were becoming popular for pleasure boating, as well as the Kennet & Avon, Ashton and Peak Forest canals, which were deteriorating fast. Following IWA campaigning, the 800 miles originally recommended for closure were reduced to just 90 miles (mostly the Kennet & Avon Canal) in the subsequent Parliamentary Bill.

7 1957 - Members' boat trip on the

Chelmer & Blackwater

Later boat trips were organised by the IWA branches, including one in 1957 to the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation by the then London & Home Counties Branch. As pleasure craft were not permitted to use locks on the waterway, the trip was organised using one of the timber barges working on the navigation. This was not without precedent, as the directors of the Company of Proprietors undertook an inspection from end to end each year in a similar fashion.