Chester & Merseyside Branch
Daniel Adamson Evening on the Manchester Ship Canal
October 2017
Programme of Meetings 2017-2018 All meetings will be held at 7.45 pm on the second Tuesday of the month. Meetings are at the Holiday Inn, (Mercer Suite,) Ellesmere Port. CH65 2AL A bar and coffee making facilities are available before and during meetings. No prior booking required. Open to non-members. Free admission. 2017
Tuesday, 10 October Ray Buss of Chester Canal Heritage Trust & The Saturn Project: Paddle Steamers, Pelicans and Pinot Grigio - Australia's River Murray
Over 2500 km long, the Murray passes through 3 states and is still home to many historic paddle steamers. In 2015, Ray and his wife followed its course to the sea, enjoying the scenery, fascinating wildlife and the boats, of course! IWA Christmas cards and calendars will also be on sale so you can shop early for Christmas!
Tuesday, 14 November Chantelle Seaborn, North West Manager for the Canal & River Trust Chantelle will be talking about her time in post, issues with the waterways in her area and her aspirations.
Tuesday, 12 December Sir Robert Atkins, IWA North West Region Chairman
We are delighted to welcome Sir Robert Atkins who was an MP and Waterways Minister and has now joined the IWA Trustees as North West Region Chairman. He will talk to us about his views on the current waterways situation and his hopes for the future. This being our Christmas social event, there will also be mince pies & refreshments, our sales stand as well as our bumper Raffle.
2018
Tuesday, 9 January Gillian Renshaw & Ani Sutton, Canal & River Trust, Manchester, Pennine & Potteries Waterways. Gillian and Ani will give a presentation on the community engagement programmes and projects taking place across the two waterways, from the health benefits that the canals bring to the youth engagement opportunities, volunteering and how the Trust is putting this into practice to show the wider benefit of the canals to all.
Tuesday, 13 February Ian Hawley, Canal Boat Adventure Project, Runcorn Ian will be talking about the history and restoration of the Standedge Tunnel. He has a wealth of personal experience on this topic and it should be a very interesting evening. Tuesday, 13 March Branch AGM followed by Andrew Watts of the Etruria Boat Group Following our AGM Andrew will be talking about Nbs Lindsay and Keppel. They were the last pair of narrowboats built by the then British Waterways Board for carrying on narrow canals. We find out about their restoration and current active lives. Tuesday, 10 April Derek Arnold - the mystery of the Marie Celeste revealed
Derek is always an extremely entertaining speaker and his take on what happened to the crew of the mystery ship, found floating in the Atlantic, fully seaworthy and with a last supper hastily abandoned will be well worth listening to
Tuesday, 8 May Phil Clayton of the BCN Society - Joeys, Joshers and James Phil will give us an
introduction to the Birmingham Canal Navigations, their history, development and changes in recent years.