navvies News

Bonfire Bash, what Bonfire Bash?

Remember the WRG Bonfire Bash, otherwise known as the WRG Reunion? Yes, the big autumn get-together and working party that used to be a regular feature of the WRG calendar, usually on the first weekend in November.

Well, as with so many things it fell foul of Covid, and the size and nature of the event was such that it was particularly tricky to reinstate it.

We would like to bring it back - but we need a suitable site (preferably scrub-clearance, as that’s the easiest to organise on that scale) and accommodation for up to 100 volunteers. Does your canal society have anything that would fit the bill? If so, please get in touch with us.

And the same goes for the Christmas / New Year Canal Camp. If you have enough scrub-bashing to keep a team busy from 26 December to 1 January, and suitable accommodation for us, we’d like to hear from you right away!

Restoration anagrams: the answers

The answers to the anagrams puzzle last time

A runway end: Wey & Arun

Red van mower: Wendover Arm

Brisk wetlands: Wilts & Berks

De-rust a trow: Stroudwater

Rubble rot and money snatch: Manchester

Bolton & Bury

Ditch feelers: Chesterfield

Cry dead-end, Sabrina: Derby and Sandiacre

Bum making arch: Buckingham Arm

Ancestral: Lancaster

Clonking top: Pocklington

Child Life: Lichfield

North hate: Hatherton

Tech riches: Chichester

Voters: Stover

Sherry & port buns, eww: Shrewsbury & Newport

Gnat harm: Grantham

Fir fiddle: Driffield

Rich warm hutch: Whitchurch Arm

A new ass: Swansea

Feral sod: Sleaford

Allan Scott R.I.P.

We’re sorry to have to bring you the sad news that London WRG recently lost one of its long-serving volunteers, Allan Scott, who died after battling cancer. He was a stalwart who had been part of London WRG’s small team of regulars who helped to see the group through some lean times in the late 1980s and early 1990s and kept it going long enough for the good times to return with an influx of new volunteers.

But besides his interest in canal boating and restoration, Allan’s other passion was singing - with his Barbershop choir and involvement in amateur dramatic / operatic productions. So it’s not surprising that he made it onto the cast of the odd (very odd!) WRG Pantomime performed at the Inland Waterways Association’s National Festival - see opposite page for a composition of his. Even when ill health prevented him from attending working parties he was still a cheerful and regular attender at London WRG socials, see picture - he’s on the right.

We send our sympathies to everyone who knew Allan.