Museum Matters May 2015
Newsletter of The Friends of The Canal Museum, Stoke Bruerne
Chairman's Jottings David Blagrove BY THE TIME YOU get this, Dear Reader, we shall be half way through 2015. It is one of the perils of ageing that time seems to pass ever faster. When facing the beginning of an Autumn Term as a schoolboy, the twelve or thirteen weeks to the Christmas festivities seemed to stretch into eternity; now they seem all too short. It appears only yesterday we were having our Carols on the Cut and now we are just about to have our Family Festival. For the same reason the Editor’s deadlines for Museum Matters seem to get ever-closer together and the ageing brain has to be put into gear to record what has happened in the apparent last five minutes, which are in fact twelve weeks. Members may rest assured that in fact plenty has happened, although not particularly obvious. It is a fact of the early part of the year that much goes on inside and at meetings that is not visible until later.
In this Issue Chairman's Jottings Jack James FoCM News Doris Osborne Photos from recent events Sculptor update FoCM Diary 2015
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The raised flower bed at the back of the Museum (Photo: SD)
In the Museum, for instance, our curatorial team has been working with Louise and Mat, particularly on the upper floor, in rearranging cases and displays. We have paid for two new cases, and the whole area has received a spring clean and really looks amazing. There has been much favourable comment from the public. At the rear, near the toilets, putting an idea of Louise’s into effect, a group from the canal volunteers has constructed a raised flower bed which again has received favourable comment. There is, incidentally, a shortage of volunteers both to work on the canalside and to assist with keeping some of the Museum surroundings in good order. If anyone else feels like coming and giving a
Cover picture: Sculptor carrying the coffin of Doris Osborne on Maunday Thursday. Doris was the daughter of Jack James. (Photo: SD)
© The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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Chairman's Jottings David Blagrove hand, let me, the Editor, any member of Council, or Louise at the Museum know and you will be made very welcome. During last winter the canal volunteer group, which is largely comprised of our members, managed to cut back the laurels along the northern edge of Museum Green. They had been neglected for years and were approaching triffid proportions. Since they have received a short back and sides the Green has gained enough room for about ten gazebos and our member and neighbour, John Harmon at 'The Laurels', can now see out of his upstairs windows. Hopefully the long-neglected flower bed by the laurel bushes can soon be restored. We are of course members of the Stoke Bruerne Canal Partnership. Indeed one of the very first activities that Lynda Payton and I undertook when first forming the Friends nearly ten years ago was to make sure that our then new organisation was represented on this body. During the ensuing years we have been instrumental in helping with the production of a considerable amount of paperwork to assist both the local and canal authorities in planning for the future. A Conservation Plan was produced with considerable input from us and last year a Development Plan for the canal corridor at Stoke Bruerne for the next ten years was produced. Already we are beginning to see the fruits of this emerging. CRT have sold off a large section of what is known as the Quarry Field, acquired by the Grand Junction Canal in 1926 with a view to establishing a Š The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
limestone quarry. This is the field immediately adjoining the narrow section of canal some two hundred yards north of the Museum. It has been let for grazing since the quarry plan came to grief c1929. Now CRT has sold off the greater, and hilly, part of it which remains grazing land, and retained the flatter part, adjacent to the towpath. Apart from the quarry tramway,
The Quarry Field (Photo KD)
parts of which remain under the grass, this part also contains the remains of the Rector’s fish ponds, through which James Barnes and William Jessop drove their new canal. These in themselves have archaeological interest and will eventually be interpreted. Meanwhile the site remains open grassland until a future use has been agreed. The canal volunteers, led by Council Member Rob Westlake, managed to clear a potential pathway into the field from the towpath before the bird nesting season began and work should commence on making a proper access through this later in the year. The existing towpath hedge has been allowed to grow far too high and this will also be addressed before summer 2016 so as to allow a better view www.friendsofthecanalmuseum.org.uk Page 3
Chairman's Jottings David Blagrove from the towpath. All this is well within the scope, and timetable, of the published Development Plan. Another development that the Partnership has been instrumental in pushing forward is the Interpretation Project, for which members will recall, a substantial Heritage Lottery Grant has been obtained. A huge amount of background work has been done by our members Lynda Payton, Helen Westlake and Brian Collings over last autumn and winter. Now it is all beginning to
Timber for the Interpreatation Project being loaded on to Sculptor at Lock 19 (Photo KD)
come together: the designs and siting of the Interpretation Panels have been agreed; amazing (at least to an old Luddite like me) new technology is being involved, including interfacing with mobile phone apps; timber for the panels has been sourced from redundant Kennet and Avon lockgates and has now been loaded aboard Sculptor for delivery to Bob Nightingale’s forge at Tunnel End where Bob is to make the required ironwork. The concrete bases for the panels are about to be laid by a CRT © The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
workforce and Sculptor will deliver the iron and wood work of the panels on to site later in the year. The panels will be mounted at intervals from the Tunnel End to Bottom Lock. We very much hope that all will be up and running by the Village at War event in September. Another development has been the commissioning of a new audio trail for the Museum, replacing the time-expired and somewhat inaccurate older one. The Friends have paid for this as well as rewriting and getting new voice-overs. Louise reports that this has been most popular and we are now looking towards doing a similar job inside the building, but this will have to await final reorganisation of the middle floor next winter. Much has happened with Sculptor during the last six months or so, most of which I leave to Kathryn to tell you about, but one most significant development has been the acceptance by the Ellesmere Port authorities that, as part of the National Collection, the boat’s maintenance needs be properly funded. Ever since The Friends were founded we have been bedevilled by a feeling of responsibility for the boat and a great deal of our resources has been channelled in that direction. We shall still have an input and will keep the boat in good order and crew her as required, but we are assured that the boat will go to Ellesmere Port next year for a full assessment of her condition and completion of restoration work. This will mean the boat’s absence for some six months or so, but we are promised www.friendsofthecanalmuseum.org.uk Page 4
Chairman's Jottings David Blagrove a replacement during that time. This will hopefully keep our rapidly developing Sculptor team busy. On a sadder note. Those who attended some of our earlier Village at War events may recall a singer in RAF uniform based in Café Renee performing WW2 songs with both talent and aplomb. This was Andrew Collier who sadly died last month following a debilitating illness. I had known Andy since the late 1960s when he and his brother Tim operated a pair of boats, Elstree and Lyra, based at Leighton Buzzard. During the final days of longdistance carrying the other destination for industrial coal on the Grand Union Canal, other than the 'Jam ‘Ole' at Southall, was John Dickinson’s Croxley Paper Mills near Watford. Until the Transport Act of 1968 gave some sort of guarantee that the canals would remain open, the only legal protection that the canals had against closure was the continuance of regular commercial trade. IWA set up a fund to try and keep the trade running and obtained an ancient grab crane to replace Dickinson’s unloading apparatus which their accountants wanted to see demolished. A number of hopeful owner boaters joined in the fray, including Tim and Andy. I chartered their motor boat as a camper for a memorable trip from Stoke Bruerne, round Birmingham and back via the Coventry and North Oxford Canals in the spring of 1970. Altogether we had two pairs, with my own boat Elton buttying Elstree for the first time since they were acquired by the Grand Union Canal © The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
Carrying Co in 1937. The wind blew, the motor broke down and we ended up with the motor Comet towing Elstree and two butties through all the narrow locks between the BCN and Bedworth, where we finally had to abandon the cruise because Elton had got so badly knocked about that she had to be put on Charity Dock. In spite of all this I remained on good terms with Andy. He was a very talented musician and wrote the lyrics and composed the music of several musical plays put on by his students. In spite of increasing frailty brought on by his illness, Andy carried on performing until he could not do so any more. He will be sadly missed by his friends in the Leighton Buzzard Canal Society and elsewhere. As a final word our Corporate Member Tim Coghlan of Braunston Marina Ltd and I attended a memorial service for our late member Sonia Rolt in St Paul's Cathedral on 14th May. Suffice to say, the service was also attended by representatives of all Sonia’s interests from IWA and the Commercial Boat Operators Association, of which latter body she was President, via the Landmark Trust and English Heritage to the Gloucester & Warwickshire Railway (which runs past her garden) and the Tal-yLlyn Railway, on which she once ran the mobile booking office; and many, many more. What an honour it was to have known her and how we shall miss her!
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Jack James A serialised biography by David Blagrove - Part 12 This is the final episode of David's biography of Jack James. I am sure we are all grateful for the time and effort he has expended on providing a most interesting story about a man (and his family) who have had so much influence on Stoke Bruerne.
When the time came to 'rig the ‘ellum' (i.e. to adorn the rudder), two other boatmen, Jack Monk and Charlie Atkins (jnr) had come over from Braunston to assist with some mechanical work on my pair of boats. We all ended up inside the Mill and Jack James challenged the other two boatmen DURING THE EARLY MONTHS of 1963 to produce figure-of-eight 'Turks Heads' for the canals suffered once again from a the tiller. Jack James and Charlie took prolonged frost. What little traffic was left lengths of thin cotton line and, after some was effectively immobilised from Boxing quick juggling with them, threw the initial three strands onto the tiller bar. Jack Monk apparently did the same but then threw a fourstrander, a feat that even Jack James was forced to admire! Those Turks Heads are still on the tiller to this day. Notwithstanding the small defeat over the four-strander, Jack was rightly proud of the finished cabin and kept it in pristine condition until his final illness. Sadly he was not able to call upon Emma’s assistance A narrow boat 'iced in' (Photo: www.geograph.org.uk) since she had died suddenly a few months previously at the comparatively Day 1962 until the following 6th March. early age of fifty eight. During this time exhibits were assembled in the refurbished mill building. I was then in It was at this time that I made Jack’s better charge of a pair of boats trapped at Stoke acquaintance and was fortunate enough to Bruerne and, with time on my hands, spend many hours with him, hearing so assisted in the arrangement of some of the much about his previous life. I visited him in exhibits as they arrived. One particular item his cottage on the canalside and while there was the mock-up of the stern end of the noticed a display case just inside the front Barlows’ boat Sunny Valley, which was door. Within it were his First War medals, placed in a prominent position on the the 'Pip, Squeak and Wilfred' of the ground floor. Jack plundered his collection Campaign Star, the Defence Medal and the of boating artefacts for the best examples of Victory Medal, which were pretty well run of cabin fittings and spent hours arranging the the mill for veterans of that war, but it was on cabin to show off the pride and looking closely at the Campaign Star that I independence of the old 'Number Ones'. noticed it had the dates 1914-15 on it © The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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Jack James A serialised biography by David Blagrove - Part 12
A Mons Star
instead of the more common 1914-18. It was of course the rare 'Mons Star' issued to those who were out in France in the period from August 1914 until the spring of 1915. He observed my interest and it was after this that I was told the tale of his involvement with the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars. Many evenings were spent in The Boat Inn listening to his tales of the Oxford Canal and of my then home town of Reading. I had no means of recording these other than my memory, which is why I have now decided to set down as much as I am able of what he told me and what I have discovered since. When the Museum opened at Easter 1963, Jack duly took up his position at the reception desk, from where he maintained an eagle eye on the exhibits. He finally retired from this some five years later, but still maintained a daily vigil and kept Sunny Valley’s cabin in pristine condition for the next five years. Stoke Bruerne meanwhile © The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
continued to change. Sister Mary retired in 1962 and left the village to live with her daughter Olive in North London. Her house was bought by Colonel A.J.P. Ritchie, then a Director of Willow Wren Canal Services Ltd, one of the last operational canal carriers and who had taken over the remains of the old Grand Union fleet in 1963. The Colonel and his wife Molly were most interested in the Museum and they too had acquired a collection of artefacts from working boats, but Ritchie had served much of his military career in the Far East and the climate of Stoke Bruerne did not suit him. The Ritchies moved to Cornwall in 1968 and the house was then purchased by British Waterways, who eventually leased it as a restaurant. Before he left though the Colonel was instrumental in assisting my wife and me in obtaining the freehold of Wharf Cottage in 1966. In September 1968 I bought a redundant butty boat called Elton from Willow Wren. The last family to work this in regular trade were Jack’s son Tom and his wife Jean. Both were now living in nearby Shutlanger, having left the canal in the early 1960s. In consequence Jack was most interested in what I intended to do with the boat quite apart from the fact that it was a wooden craft, albeit of a later, large Grand Union design from the horse boats of his youth. The boat’s bottom was in a poor condition, but since I had only paid £25 for it, this did not concern me unduly, more especially since Jack maintained that boats in far worse condition were regularly in trade in the past. This was of course long before such things as British Waterways’ Boat Safety Certificates were required for www.friendsofthecanalmuseum.org.uk Page 7
Jack James A serialised biography by David Blagrove - Part 12 presentable. Jack refused any payment, but we managed to persuade him to join us for a dinner of roast pheasant, which he thoroughly enjoyed. By the following spring I had managed to renew the cabin, fit it out and paint the boat in a style befitting the old Oxford Number Ones. Jack finished the project off by rigging the 'ellum' and Jack trindling a mop outside his house at 3 Canalside (Photo: presenting me with a Blagrove Collection) set of newly-worked licensing craft. In brief, Jack told me how side strings for the chimney pipe side of the matters could be remedied so as to make cabin. My first trip was made the following the boat safe until such time as I could May to the reopening of the Welford Arm. afford to dock it. Not content with explaining Subsequently the boat was used in the matters over a pint or two, Jack instructed retail coal business based at the Wharf at me in the ancient art of 'shearing' a bottom Stoke Bruerne where Jack kept a with hot bitumen and thin oak strips. proprietorial eye on it. Although I sold the Together we sealed the worst of the bad boat after nineteen years, it is still afloat places in the bottom with blue clay and, near Manchester awaiting a full restoration. once the water had stopped seeping in, the thin strips were securely tacked down with In the summer of 1973 Dick Hutchings, the galvanised nails into a bed of hot bitumastic manager of the Museum who had taken and sawdust. This effectively held the Charles Hadlow’s place, took me aside and bottom secure for several years. I had privately asked whether I had noticed obtained sufficient timber to build a set of anything strange about Jack recently. I had 'shutts' (false floors) and had begun to cut noticed that his visits to The Boat Inn were and lay these when I went down with a not as frequent as formerly and he had serious chest infection. Jack insisted on lately begun to look somewhat gaunt, but I taking over the project and for several days had put this down to his advancing age. I lay in bed in a semi-conscious state while Dick shook his head and muttered that he he, twice my age and more, sawed and thought it was something more than mere hammered away outside. When I old age. It was indeed. Earlier that year my eventually recovered the false floors were friend and neighbour Teddy Cook, a finished and the boat looked much more partner in a veterinary practice in Š The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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Jack James A serialised biography by David Blagrove - Part 12 Northampton and another Boat Inn regular had said to me, 'you know, in about twenty years time Mr James there and me will still be sitting in here, old fogies holding forth' and we had all laughed. Before the leaves were off the trees that year both of them were gone. In late summer, within a few weeks of this conversation, Jack was taken into hospital and his illness proved terminal, while Teddy dropped down with a heart attack in his own sitting room. They are both
Jack painting the lock approach at Lock 16 - the white paint was to enhance the visibility at night. (Photo: Payler Collection)
buried near one another in Stoke Bruerne Churchyard. Jack was seventy seven years old. An assessment of anyone’s character is bound to be affected by personal experience, and I only knew Jack for the last ten years of his life. I found him very good company, with a puckish sense of humour. I knew him to carry out many acts of personal kindness to others. Some © The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
people may have found him gruff, but he was very quick to seize on whether or not he was being patronised. I knew him to be a loyal and trusted friend, and I was far from being the only person who did so. Even those with whom he had disagreements were forced to admit that he was a man of personal integrity. I still miss him. Sources Whilst much of this serialised account is based on verbal sources, there are some factual and primary sources in the public domain. The births, marriages and deaths are from public records, including Census returns, and I am greatly obliged to my cotrustee of The Friends of The Canal Museum, Lorna York, for her assistance in locating these. I was also able to listen to several tapes made by Jack in the 1960s and to use a transcript provided by Lorna. So far as the military events are concerned, Lyn MacDonald’s books 1914, Days of Hope, 1915, The Death of Innocence and Malcolm Brown’s The Imperial War Museum’s Book of the Western Front contain information that confirms Jack’s own account of his days with the QOOHs. I am also indebted to Chris Jones who has made it his business to research much of the background to the traders and boats of the Oxford Canal and Thames. These, which he has made freely available to me, have enabled me to put flesh onto the bare bones of official records from Jack’s reminiscences.
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FoCM News
Financial Update A QUIET TIME for The Friends' finances, save for the membership fees which are now coming in. Deposits will be paid soon for items for the two big festivals The financial position of the Friends as of 30th April 2015 is that have in hand £48,557.27
WE DO REQUIRE your support for the following items for the Family Festival in June. If you can help please contact Trevor Allum or Lynda Payton: • • •
Brian Everest, Treasurer
Membership Subscriptions JUST A REMINDER that annual subscriptions were due on the 1st April 2015 renewal date. There has been no increase in subscription fees, with the rates remaining as follows: Individual member Joint members Joint members (over 60) Family membership Concessionary rate *
Support for the Family Festival
£15 £20 £15 £20 £15
* Students and those over 60
• •
Adult Tombloa items Volunteers to assist, no matter for how long Help with Children's Face Painting Help with 'Find the Wine' Help with car parking
Sponsorship in memory of David Henderson £7,233.14 WAS RAISED recently following a sponsored cycle ride, in aid of the British Heart Foundation, from York to the Cobblers Ground in Northampton in memory of David Henderson. It was following a match between York and the Cobblers, which David and his son attended, that David sadly died following a heart attack. Well done to all those who rode in memory of David.
A lovely display of purple pansies outside the Museum (Photo: KD) © The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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Doris Osborne An appreciation by her sons Tony and Philip DORIS OSBORNE, who was born on 6th May 1928, arrived in the canalside village of Stoke Bruerne on board a narrow boat and at her family’s request, on Thursday 2nd April 2015, arrangements were made for her departure in the same way.
Doris (right) with sister Christine Ratledge at the Museum reopening on 30th April last year (Photo: SD)
Doris was the daughter of Jack and Emma James and was born in Reading on board narrow boat Emma. She was schooled at a convent in Oxford whilst her parents worked boats over a large area. During the Second World War, at the age of just 13, she helped the family run the boats Badsey and Balham as her elder brothers had been called up for war service. They often ran from Park Royal in London to Birmingham carrying a variety of loads, the most notable of which was Guinness. Jack and Emma James had come to know Sister Mary Ward in the course of their regular journeys through Stoke Bruerne and following the hard winter of 1947 they decided to purchase one of the canalside cottages owned by Sister Mary. Now the resident of No.3 Canalside Cottages, Jack decided to apply for the vacant position of © The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
Lock Keeper for the seven locks that climb up to the centre of the village. He quickly expanded his official duties and began tidying up the area and regularly won a national competition for the best kept lock. He also collected waterways artefacts and these were to become the foundation of the acclaimed museum in Stoke Bruerne. In 1954 Doris married Reginald Osborne, a jeweller and pawnbroker based in Regent's Square, Northampton. They had three children, Anthony, Philip and Wendy. Doris lived a long and happy life and was involved in many voluntary roles and an active churchgoer, latterly at St. Peter’s in the village of Weston Favell. Doris was extremely proud of her heritage on the waterways and her family connection with Stoke Bruerne. It was to honour and respect her past that she was carried from the southern portal of Blisworth Tunnel aboard the narrow boat Sculptor the short distance to the front door of cottage No 3 above Top Lock. Sculptor was operated by volunteers David Blagrove, Kathryn Dodington and Rob Westlake with Doris’ sons Anthony and Philip on board. The towpath was lined by members of the family as well as boaters who were moored in the area, all paying their respects to a lady with such strong connections to the waterway network and village of Stoke Bruerne.
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Photos from recent events
Richard Parry with Rob Westlake on the tiller of Sculptor making their way through Blisworth after the 200th anniversary of the Northampton Arm celebrations (Photo: LP)
The 200th anniversary mural at Gayton Sanitary Station promoted by IWA Northampton Branch (Photo: LP) Š The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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Š The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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Photos from recent events
The new 'Living Back Yard' behind the Museum (Photo: SD)
This summer's Museum Team - L to R - Mat, Shivani, Charlotte, Emi, Linda, Louise and Aaron (Photo: KD) Š The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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Photos from recent events
The first new picnic bench in place - more are on order. They are sponsored by FoCM, Stoke Bruerne Boat Company, Stoke Bruerne Parish Council and CRT (Photo: KD)
The Sculptor team with some of the Heritage Working Boats team during their visit to Icknield Port in Birmingham (Photo: KD) Š The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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Photos from recent events
Doris Osborne's coffin being unloaded from Sculptor (Photo: SD)
We now have space for two historic boats at Stoke Bruerne - Southern Cross trying out the new space (Photo: KD) Š The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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Sculptor Update Kathryn Dodington IT MAY HAVE BEEN a quiet time for Sculptor over the winter but we have made up for it since.
John Woods (who was involved in the rebuild of the tunnel) through to Gayton and return.
Sadly Sculptor was not accepted for the full Magna Carta rally; we were asked if she could be present to act as a host boat for a
On 2nd April we had the honour of carrying Doris Osborne’s coffin from the tunnel portal to outside 3 Canalside Cottages. Doris who, died recently, was Jack James’ daughter. There is more elsewhere in this issue about Doris’ life.
Loading the oak timber aboard Sculptor at Lock 19 (Photo: KD)
number of smaller river craft, which we declined as Sculptor is not best suited to that role. Our March Sculptor day was spent with the Heritage Woking Boats group at Icknield Port in Birmingham, kindly arranged by Emma Hermon, which went a long way to understanding their operation with their boats, Nansen II, Leo, Swift and Scorpio. Sculptor day on 18th April was great with a visit from Margaret Harrison (CRT Head of Collections), Iain Weston (Operations Manager for Historic Craft) and Robert Turner from a company called EURA who advise on historic structures – everyone present found the morning very helpful. In the afternoon we took Iain Weston and © The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
In late April Sculptor went down to Lock 19 to symbolically collect some oak timber for the Stoke Bruerne Interpretation Project, and in the afternoon Louise hosted Vicky Martin (the new SE Waterways Manager) and Ben Gordon (a new CRT Trustee) on Sculptor as we took her through the tunnel. On the Friday of that week we started CAATS (Competency and Assessment Training Scheme) on Sculptor for three of the crew; this was repeated again on Saturday 9th May for the remaining crew. Everyone passed. Thanks to Mike Dalzell of CRT for undertaking the CAATS assessments. Very recently Sculptor attended IWA's 200th anniversary celebrations for the Northampton Arm; we were pleased to be able to offer Richard Parry, Chief Executive of CRT, a trip back to Stoke Bruerne and through the tunnel before he returned home. In the meantime we have had a few trips down to the A508 to wind the boat so that www.friendsofthecanalmuseum.org.uk Page 17
Sculptor Update Kathryn Dodington she is facing in the right direction for when it is next needed. The stern gland has been taken apart and repacked and so far hasn’t leaked a drop of water to the best of our knowledge. We have an agreement from CRT to help with appropriate tooling for doing a number of small jobs on Sculptor (including covering out-of-pocket expenses) and agreement in principle for Sculptor to go to Ellesmere Port in the latter part of 2016 for blacking, a formal inspection by CRT’s Marine Architect and replacement of the gunwales forward of the engine room. Prior to that there will hopefully be an ‘in water’ check to see what other work may be needed to be scheduled whilst she is at Ellesmere Port. Whilst Sculptor is being checked over and
The Sculptor crew (Bill Mann and Kathryn Dodington) with Ben Gordon (CRT Trustee) and Vicky Martin (SE Waterways Manager) at the northern portal of Blisworth Tunnel (Photo: LS)
worked on we will be provided with an alternative historic boat in the same way Shad was here some years ago.
Sculptor carring Doris Osborne's coffin with (on the back end boards L to R) Philip and Tony Osborne and (on the counter L to R) the Sculptor crew of Rob Westlake, Kathryn Dodington and David Blagrove (Photo: SD) © The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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FoCM Diary 2015 June 2015 7th 7th 13th/14th
Mikron One of Each 13:00 Sunbeam Motorcycle Club 10:00 and 14:00 FoCM Canal Family Festival 10:00
July 2015 21st
IWA Northampton
Geocaching Event Stoke Bruerne 18:00
August 2015 4th CRT Every Thursday in August
16th 24th/25th
CRT CRT
Teddy Bears Picnic Terrific Thursdays Free children's activities with Explorer volunteers Summer fun on The Green Pirate Weekend
10:00 10:00
Village at War Roses and Castles Painting
10:00 10:00
Children's Halloween Activities
10:00
Carols on the Cut
16:30
10:00 10:00
September 2015 12th/13th 19th/20th
FoCM CRT
October 2015 31st
CRT
December 2015 5th
FoCM
Della Sadler-Moore and Lorna York examining the recently delivered display boards, now on show in the Museum, charting the story of Sister Mary Ward. (Photo: LS)
The Friends of The Canal Museum at Stoke Bruerne may not agree with the opinions expressed in this newsletter, but encourages publication as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may be construed as policy or an official statement unless so stated. The Friends of The Canal Museum accept no liability for any matter, errors or omissions contained within this newsletter. We will however gladly publish corrections if notified. The Editor reserves the right to shorten or modify articles published in the interests of space or clarity. Š The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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FoCM Council Chairman David Blagrove, MBE (01604) 862174 - also member of the Curatorial Group and a Trustee Vice-Chairman Lorna York - also member of the Curatorial Group and a Trustee Treasurer Brian Everest (treasurer@friendsofcanalmuseum.org.uk) Minutes Secretary Roger Hasdell Membership Secretary Linda Clarke (membership@friendsofcanalmuseum.org.uk) Publicity & Website, Grant Funding & Awards Lynda Payton (01604) 861205 (publicity@friendsofcanalmuseum.org.uk) Newsletter Kathryn Dodington (editor@friendsofcanalmuseum.org.uk) Museums & Attractions Partnership John Alderson Volunteer Co-ordinator Trevor Allum
Photographic Credits KD LP LS
Kathryn Dodington FoCM Lynda Payton FoCM Louise Stockwin CRT
Other Museum Manager (ex-officio seat) Bill Mann (Catering) Michael Butler (Village at War) Events Sub-Committees Trevor Allum, Michael Butler, Jenny Copeland, David Daines, Roger Hasdell, Bill Mann, Sandie Morton, Mike Partridge, Lynda Payton, Victoria Powell, Terry Richardson, Graeme Scothern, Louise Stockwin, Laura Sturrock (also Trustee), Helen Westlake and Liam Whitby. Non-Council Posts Roger Hasdell Asst Newsletter Editor Terry Richardson Asst Publicity Officer Brian Collings Curatorial Group Rose Granaghan Winter Talks Organiser Laura Sturrock Trustee Š The Friends of The Canal Museum Registered Charity No 1121146
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