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The pop....pop,pop.....pop of Stour's 15 horse power Bolinder was followed by the clip clop of Queenie's one horse power hooves as Gifford was brought up the Crow by Sue Day to our 5th annual Pumphouse Rally back at the beginning of July.
Holding the rally to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the closure of Thomas Clayton's Boatyard proved to be a great success.
As well as the Clayton's boats Stour and Gifford, the small Woolwich motors Cepheus and Atlas and tugs, Bittel, Nansen and Caggy also joined the weekend together with lots of other boats.
The many visitors over the wekend thoroughly enjoyed the mix of boats and activity on the water, the ral ale bar, cakes, burgers, stalls and entertainment. The Clayton boats attracted many former boaters still living in the area and it was fascinating to sit and listen to their reminiscences. Interviews with some of the old boaters went out live on Radio and Jenny Jones's chat on air with Tony Jones even attracted a couple up to the event to sample his real ale! This is what you can do when yoy keep thec soul as well as the body of an old building.
To run such an event takes a tremendous amount of work and I wpuld like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the weekend. I would particularly thank Andy Meek who has carried the role of Press & Publicity Officer for a number of years.
Andy's efforts mean that Society event hve been well publicised and have attracted the numbers of people that makes them such a success. Andy has now decided to step down from the role and so we are looking for a member to become our new Press and Publicity Officer. This is a vital job which maintains the profile of the Society. If you would like to consider taking over please contact me.
It was good to come up the wonderfully well maintained Wolverhampton Tweny One a week or so ago, particularly after a very enjoyable but somewhat strenuous cruise over the Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow canals. Time will tell what effect the budget cuts being faced by British Waterways will have on our system but we must remain vigilant. As this edition goes to press, we have a meeting of the BCN Heritage Group set up in response to the loss of the Sandwell Park Colliert coal bunkers. We will report back as soon as we can on the decisions made by the group.
See you at one of our Autumn events culminating in the Bonfire Rally, or at the Christmas Social
Best Wished....Phil.