2015 autumn

Magazine of IWA Lee & Stort Branch Autumn 15

I want to begin by remembering our good friend and IWA stalwart, Frank Wallder, who passed away a few weeks ago after battling health issues. Frank and I first met at the Waltham Abbey National IWA Festival back in 2000, and within minutes I understood just how passionate he was for our Inland Waterways.

Frank was heavily involved at a National level, particularly working and lobbying to restore some of our disused navigations, and was often seen out on work parties with our Waterways Recovery Group. He had an in-depth knowledge of the system and was able to articulate the IWA vision to many and varied audiences from MPs, Corporate Bodies and local Councillors, to community groups, young people, and our own membership.

At a local level Frank was a pivotal player in the Branch. This was back in the early days when the Lee and Stort Branch had only just been born. He made sure that our voice was heard at every level. We may have been the smallest and newest branch back then, but with Frank’s drive and passion, we were soon on the map as the loudest branch who were making things happen and change for the benefit of our wonderful waterways.

At both our Ware Festival and the Saul Festival Frank, was ever present, marketing the IWA to the public from the Branch Marquee. Those who attend Ware Festival will know that the number of marquees have

grown over the years and we lovingly refer to this area of the festival as Frank’s ‘Gazebo Village’. His legacy lives on.

There was another side to Frank, which most of us never got to see. During his school days, one friend remembers clearly when he gave a rendition of ‘There’s a One-Eyed Yellow Idol to the North of Khatmandu’, which may strike a chord, as he was known to quote this on many occasions.

He became Head Boy and was always keen on sport, and went on to become a dynamic Chairman and driving force of the Old Scholars Association. More recently, he resurrected the school war memorial, which had been removed from display, and organised its re-dedication.

So our thoughts go out to Frank’s family but I hope it will bring them some consolation to know that he was a great friend to the IWA, a terrific committee member, and a true supporter of our Inland Waterways heritage.

Frank, you are sadly missed, rest in peace in the waterways above.

From all your friends in the Lee and Stort Branch.

Craig.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WINTER MOORINGS ON SALE FOR 2015-16 1st October 2015 Winter moorings for 2015-16 go on sale today, offering boaters the chance to tie up for the winter at a wide selection of sites across England and Wales.

The Canal & River Trust offers winter moorings to support the continuous cruising lifestyle. They offer boaters the chance to have a respite from cruising during the harshest months of the year from the start of November to the end of February.

There are a variety of winter moorings available with some situated near facilities on selected visitor moorings and some at quieter towpath spots for boaters who want a bit more solitude. The Trust also created

sites where boaters moored last year, and has added further sites following feedback from boaters. Maps of the winter mooring locations can be seen here.

Boaters can book their winter mooring through the Trust’s boat licensing site: https://licensing.canalrivertrust.org.uk/Account/SignIn. Unregistered boat licence-holders should create an account using the option to register under ‘I am an existing Canal & River Trust customer’.

Mike Grimes, head of boating at the Trust, said: “We offer winter moorings as a way of supporting the continuous cruising lifestyle. In winter, cruising can be harder as weather conditions become more challenging, with the potential for freezing water, bitter winds and sleet, and ground like granite. We are offering a wide selection of winter moorings to give boaters across the country a chance to tie up for the season. Not every boater wants to stop moving so we’ve made sure that where we offer winter moorings on visitor mooring sites, at least half the space will be left free for cruising boats.”

Both continuous cruisers and boaters with a home mooring will be able to take up a winter mooring. However boaters who are not meeting their licence requirements may not be eligible.

Everyone Please Note Changes to Committee details: Terry’s e-mail address; 2 New members.

Forthcoming Branch Meetings Our programme for future months is: November 2015 Mimi Alderman 'Begone Woman' 14th December 2015 Mince Pies & Mulled Wine th 11 January 2016 ) To be arranged 8th February 2016 ) 14th March 2016 AGM All meetings are at The New Inn, High Street, Roydon, CM19 5EE, commencing at 8:00 p.m.

9th

After the Wendover Arm Grand Draw in September, we received a thank you letter from Michael Wright, the organiser. He says: “I would like to express to your readers a very big thank you for their support for the WAT Grand Draw 2015. This year we managed to raise just over £4500 towards the Restoration Fund.

The twelve prize winners have all been advised and the common response was as always, - “I never win anything.......””

I never win anything either!

He goes on: “After sending all the prizes, our thoughts are turning to next year’s Draw, when it is hoped you will all extend your amazing generosity again. The restoration is still continuing.

The full list of prize winners in the Draw is shown on the Trust website: www.wendoverarmtrust.co.uk and follow the link.

Again, through your Branch magazine, may the Trust say a very big thank you for your essential support.”

From the Region As we move into autumn we can look back at this year’s events run by IWA across the country, with pride, and we must thank all those volunteers who have made them possible. Your Branch always runs the Ware Festival, a really fun weekend. From past experience I know that planning will soon start for next year’s event, if you could spare some time to help run it, please have a word with any of your Branch officers or if you would like to get involved with any of the national events, have a word with me.

There is still no information on the merger of the Environment Agency (EA) with the Canal & River Trust (CRT). There are worrying signs that the cuts, being imposed on EA, are reducing their ability to operate and maintain the network for which they are responsible. If you have a boat on EA waters, can you please let me know if there are any structures out of use or in poor condition in your area? I will arrange for these to be included on our ‘at risk’ register and have the problem raised at a national level.

The Waterways Recovery Group (WRG) Van Appeal which is looking to raise £120,000 to replace their four existing vans, which form an essential part of running Canal Camps, etc. is doing well, they are over half way there. WRG is an important part of our association, it even has work camps on the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation in our region and it needs all our support. If you have not already given to the appeal please see if you could help by giving just a little. While on the subject of WRG you might have heard that Mike Palmer, WRG Chairman, was appointed an MBE in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list earlier in the year.

The location of CRT winter’s moorings for boats that don’t have a home mooring, is very important to your branch, and the other branches in the London Region. This year CRT has only designated a few moorings in Central London, and many of the moorings will be in your branch area. I am a little concerned about the lack of facilities near some of the proposed moorings, for example, the moorings at Ware are some miles from water and effluent discharge points. We will need to monitor the situation, at the winter moorings, and if problems between boaters and shore based communities, and with rubbish and effluent disposal, occur, see if we can help. If you hear anything please let your committee know.

London Region is unusual in IWA in that many of the issues, such as overstaying boats, are common to most branches and our response is more effective if co-ordinated regionally. However we do need some more members on the Region committee to help run the region. If you could spare a few hours each month and would like to help please have a word with Craig or myself.

Paul Strudwick, Chair Person, London Region The Inland Waterways Association, www.waterways.org.uk Twitter Paul@greenboater

Although 2015 sees the 40th anniversary of the opening of Rammey Marsh Cruising Club’s clubhouse by the mayor of Enfield, the club was actually born some six years earlier.

In late 1968/early 1969 four friends who worked at STC (later to become ITT) in Southgate rented some land from British Waterways Board, via the working lock-keeper at Rammey Marsh lock, to moor their boats on. So we could say that the founder members were Wilf Yule, Stan Andrews and Henry Locke. Sadly the name of the fourth friend is lost to history. Henry’s son, Keith went on to become club Commodore almost 40 years later having joined the club in the early 1990’s.

The boats were all home built and not over large, but even so, they were spread out along the length of what is now RMCC’s moorings, with three just above the lock and one down by the pipe bridge at the lower end of the island. The reason they were so spread out was that the land was covered in trees and these were the only usable areas.

As time progressed they were joined by other boat owners looking for moorings and by 1971 had moved to the point where Rammey Marsh Cruising Club was born and its first Commodore (T.E. Preston) was elected at the AGM held in the Old English Gentleman pub.

It soon became apparent that a clubhouse was needed for the infant club and in 1974/75 the dog kennel and security hut from the Eastern Electricity Board warehouse in Lea Road was donated on the understanding that the members moved it themselves. A base was laid in preparation for the building and the huts were dismantled and carried to the river bank, where they were loaded onto ‘Salim’ (the Scouts’ boat which is still moored at the club) and transported down the river to be assembled at its current site, where it was officially opened by the mayor of Enfield in 1975.

The club continued to expand and when the opportunity came to rent the land at the bottom of the island from Thames Water, the new moorings opened in 1987, complete with a band from the local Army Cadets and an opening ceremony from the Mayor again. Over the coming years the Club maintained its links with the Mayor, taking part in the annual Mayors walk to raise money for local charities.

Club members in those days built their own jetties to fit their boats and that was to continue into the mid 90’s when the linear moorings were started using materials supplied by British Waterways.

They took Club members almost ten years to complete.

Prior to that, facilities had been gradually improved at the club, with the provision of an Elsan disposal point, electricity and water along the moorings and an extension to the existing clubhouse building allowing for a larger kitchen, bar and a shower. All of this work was carried out by club members.

The lower end moorings had been returned to Thames Water when a decline in membership meant that the club could no longer afford to continue to rent it. When it was placed on the open market for sale, a few years later, the decision was made to purchase the land for the Club.

This was a huge gamble at the time, leaving the club treasurer juggling the funds to pay the bills until we started to earn an income from it.

Since that purchase, the club has gone from strength to strength, with the income from the owned land boosting the club funds by a healthy amount each year, allowing further works and improvements to be carried out.

Many members have come and gone over the years. Some come back to visit us occasionally, some are with us all the time on the memorial bench, and some will remain at the club as their ashes were scattered there. All were friends with a common interest, a love of boats and the river. This continues to this day and will hopefully continue for our children and Grandchildren for many years to come.

The First Pound Lock in the Country?

I’m sure that many of you will have come across The Tale of Two Swannes, written in 1590 by William Vallans, which includes the lines: ‘Among them all a rare devise they see, But newly made, a waterworke: the locke Through which the boates of Ware doe passe with malt, This locke containes two double doores of wood, Within the same a Cesterne all of Plancke, Which onely fils when boates come there to passe By opening anie of these mightie dores with sleight, And strange devise, but now decayed sore.’

This led me to wonder whether we have, in our Lee & Stort patch, the site of the first pound lock in Britain, so with the help of Richard Thomas’s wondrous web site leeandstort.co.uk I did a bit of research.

Waltham Pound Lock was a Tudor improvement to the River Lee, and was first proposed in 1575. Prior to the construction of the pound lock there had been a flash lock upstream of Waltham High Bridge, diverting water from Waltham Mill, but with few barges navigating the channel it was prone to silting and decay. So a new channel was proposed, bypassing the mill channel and housing the new Waltham Pound Lock. Work seems to have been carried out in 1576, and all the evidence suggests that the entire lock, including the walls, was constructed of wood (costs had been drawn up comparing stone and wood, but the Commissioners chose the cheaper wooden option).

But the lock was prone to subsidence and damage, and soon fell into a poor state of repair and in May 1579, just a few years after its construction full scale repairs were carried out necessitating closure of the lock cut, and masonry foundations installed. Amazingly, this work took less than a month, so that by June of 1579 the lock was in operation again.

However, problems did not stop there. The lock had aroused opposition, by millers, riparian landowners, fishermen, and the local overland carriers, and there was even an approach to parliament to

close the navigation. This legal challenge failed, as did subsequent petitions, so violent protests ensued, including attacking the lock with a handsaw, trying to set light to the lock, and direct action against the bargees.

In 1592 the lock was completely destroyed, and the lock was dismantled, so the bargees reverted to using the old flash lock. This resulted in more violence against the bargees, who had to endure damaged boats (one was even sunk) and men were injured.

The pound lock was never rebuilt, and so the navigation reverted to its old course until well into the 18th century.

So, was this the first pound lock in the country? It seems not, as there had been pound locks elsewhere, notably on the River Exe, but these have a combination of guillotine and mitre gates. However, it seems fairly certain that Waltham Pound Lock was the first to have mitre gates at both ends.

There is certainly a wealth of waterway history on the River Lee, as the map shows, and around Waltham Abbey there have been numerous locks and channels over the years, including an entire network serving the gunpowder mills. Even the current Waltham Town Lock has only been in its current position since 1922; it had previously been sited downstream of the road bridge, where currently CRT has workboat moorings; the house alongside is the former lockkeepers house, which remained here even after the lock was moved.

If you would like to find out more about your local navigation, I suggest you visit leeandstort.co.uk where Richard Thomas has compiled a wealth of information about the history and geography of our local river navigations.

Les.

Chairman’s Message Well hello everyone. It’s now that time of year when the dark nights and cooler wet weather descend upon us, and we reflect on the summer and our experiences on our inland waterways.

Over the last couple of years, our branch has had two campaigns that have occupied a great deal of time and effort but our determination to improve the Lee and Stort Branch area of responsibility has come to fruition.

The first is The Ware Common Wharf. As you will no doubt all be aware, this wharf and mooring was ‘occupied’ by a certain vessel, and the bankside treated as their own private land. At one point a fence was erected, a private mooring sign put up and a caravan parked up next to the waterway. We undertook extensive research to evidence and confirm that the land was in fact common land that was (or should have been) available for the use of everyone. We then lobbied Ware Town Council, East Herts District Council and Canal and River Trust, as well as obtaining the support of local boating and angling associations. A long and fairly drawn out legal process was followed but it was worth the wait. In July this year, on the very weekend of our Annual Boat Festival, the wharf was returned to full public visitor status with a jointly funded sign being put up to confirm this. The offending boat went, the caravan has gone, and the fence long been removed.

It has been great to see this mooring used over the summer by many a visiting boat and anglers.

In the spring we will undertake a second clean up event, so as to keep this facility maintained for public use.

Our second campaign has been to replace the bank side mooring beams in Ware from the High Street Bridge up to opposite the Town Quay. Working in partnership with CRT we made available funds from our accounts to make this happen and again, in time for our Annual Festival in the town, the majority of the work was completed.

It is great to see that CRT invested in only the best oak to undertake this task and the craftsmanship that went into the job was superb, resulting in not only a much safer bank side, but one that looks so much better, with those big dangerous iron bolts being made a thing of the past. My thanks go to CRT for their continued support.

Our Annual Ware Boat Festival in July, was again an overwhelming success with 76 boats in attendance over the weekend. A special thanks to Mike Newman who assumed the role of Harbourmaster with gusto and energy, as well as introducing some technological advances. Mike produced an online mooring map that gave an aerial view of the waterspace, and where each boat was to be moored at the event. This was posted on line and printed versions on show at both Stanstead and Hardmead locks, so everyone knew where they were going to be moored. Needless to say we have asked Mike to do it all over again in 2016.

The BBQ on the Friday evening went extremely well, my thanks to the various cooks and volunteers, we will take the feedback that whilst the music provided was good, something more upbeat and fun would was preferred. The parade of boats was well attended with many of you making a great deal of effort to dress the boats in the theme ‘Where in the World’.

The IWA marquee was more successful than ever in terms of visitors, money raised, and new members attracted to the organisation.

The Boat Handling and Quiz Night went off well, and the new event of the Sunday Coffee Morning was very well attended, with a

variety of cakes being produced that kept us all well fed as we left the site and headed for home‌see you all in 2016.

We have been approached by the authorities in Bishop’s Stortford to resurrect the festival in the town, that we used to undertake a few years ago. The committee will be discussing this when we meet in late November. Lower down on the Lee, we have given over a further donation to CRT, as the work force on Carpenters Road Lock, appears to have overcome the challenges they were facing.

A number of our members have now signed up and been trained to support CRT with boat checking duties. With over 3000 vessels estimated to be moored in the London Area, CRT need this support to help enforce the waterway regulations, so that our rivers can be used by everyone in a way that enhances this public amenity, supports the environment, and helps deal with the issue of boats that continually moor at public mooring locations (and apparently some even on lock landing stages!!!!!!). If you would like to support CRT with this work, can I ask you to contact Sorwar Ahmed, the CRT Boat Liaison Manager.

We are seeing some slight improvement the overcrowded mooring situation nationally, following the introduction of new procedures for boats without a home mooring, and IWA support CRT in this area. We know the London issue is still far from satisfactory and we are still some way from everybody having a fair chance to moor in popular areas.

At a national level, the future of the Environment Agency is becoming a cause for concern for the IWA, with increasing evidence of navigation suspensions due to lack of basic maintenance, boats running aground and parts of the system become less accessible.

The IWA is clear in its vision that all EA navigations should be transferred to CRT and IWA Council are looking to meet the new Waterways Minister Rory Stewart soon to discuss our concerns and views.

The IWA launched a campaign four years ago to control the invasive plant known as Himalayan Balsam, that causes damage along the canals and rivers of the UK. I know some of our branch members have supported work parties to clear this plant from a number of sites across our region. On the subject of national campaigns, retailers are being urged to support the IWA to help

improve local communities by allocating substantial amounts of money from the windfall levy on plastic shopping bags towards cleaning up canal and river amenities. Our branch committee will be discussing local plans, to ensure the Rivers Lee and Stort benefit from this tax on bags.

As you will have just read, Frank Wallder is no longer with us.

The committee is considering putting a plaque on the bench at Ware, in his memory.

Well I hope you enjoy the rest of 2016 and dare I say this in November…..but I wish you all a Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing many of you in 2016.

Craig WINTER MOORINGS ON SALE FOR 2015-16 1st October 2015 Winter moorings for 2015-16 go on sale today, offering boaters the chance to tie up for the winter at a wide selection of sites across England and Wales.

The Canal & River Trust offers winter moorings to support the continuous cruising lifestyle. They offer boaters the chance to have a respite from cruising during the harshest months of the year from the start of November to the end of February.

There are a variety of winter moorings available with some situated near facilities on selected visitor moorings and some at quieter towpath spots for boaters who want a bit more solitude. The Trust also created sites where boaters moored last year, and has added further sites following feedback from boaters. Maps of the winter mooring locations can be seen here.

Boaters can book their winter mooring through the Trust’s boat licensing site: https://licensing.canalrivertrust.org.uk/Account/SignIn. Unregistered boat licence-holders should create an account using the option to register under ‘I am an existing Canal & River Trust customer’.

Mike Grimes, head of boating at the Trust, said: “We offer winter moorings as a way of supporting the continuous cruising lifestyle. In winter, cruising can be harder as weather conditions become more challenging, with the potential for freezing water, bitter winds and sleet,

and ground like granite. We are offering a wide selection of winter moorings to give boaters across the country a chance to tie up for the season. Not every boater wants to stop moving so we’ve made sure that where we offer winter moorings on visitor mooring sites, at least half the space will be left free for cruising boats.”

Both continuous cruisers and boaters with a home mooring will be able to take up a winter mooring. However boaters who are not meeting their licence requirements may not be eligible.

PRESS RELEASE: Plastic bags levy – waterways campaigners seek retailer support for canal clean-ups.

5th October 2015 Retailers in England are being urged by The Inland Waterways Association, a leading waterways charity, to help improve local communities by allocating substantial amounts from a windfall levy on plastic shopping bags towards cleaning up canal and river amenities, which are blighted by plastic and other waste.

Thousands of volunteer hours are spent each year removing tonnes of waste from the country’s inland waterways, and the charity that undertakes much of this work is calling on retailers, who from early October will introduce a new 5 pence charge for disposable plastic shopping bags, to help the environment where many of these bags tend to end up.

The Inland Waterways Association has revealed that in 2014 its volunteers dedicated 7,000 hours to canal clean-up work parties across the country, up 45% on 2013. Along with some unexpected finds are considerable quantities of ‘the usual suspects’, the charity said, including supermarket trollies, plastic bags, bottles and other packaging waste.

Les Etheridge, IWA’s chairman, appealed to medium and larger retailers, who will be required to collect the charge from customers under the Single Use Carrier Bags Charges (England) Order 2015, to use some of this levy to support efforts to enhance the waterways environment. “The new law allows them to decide which ‘good causes’ they will support, with what promises to be substantial sums of money,” Les Etheridge said. “Donating some of this levy to support IWA’s year-onyear clean-up efforts, will deliver long-term benefits to marine habitats and, of course, to the communities which surround them”.

IWA campaigns officer Alison Smedley said: “Plastic and packaging waste in particular is terrible for the waterways habitat and for marine life, as well as for the wider enjoyment of the waterways’ millions of

annual visitors. These are hugely popular places for leisure and wellbeing, so this levy is a massive opportunity for both retailers and waterways bodies such as ourselves, to make a real difference.”

According to government (DEFRA) figures, in 2013 supermarkets gave out over 8 billion single-use carrier bags across the UK – nearly 130 bags per person – equating to about 57,000 tonnes of single-use carrier bags in total over the year.

Retailers keen to support IWA’s charitable work on the waterways can get further information from the Association at www.waterways.org.uk/plasticbags

We don’t want our waterways to end up like this canal in Bangladesh

The Victoria, Ware… …is now under new tenancy, and has been for about a year.

Jim and Helen are keen to make a go of it, and will welcome boaters who would like to moor up and come in for a pint. The obstructive boat that has been moored outside for some time, preventing any prospective boating customers from entering the pub, has now gone.

Although they didn’t initially know anything about the Ware Festival, they are willing to be involved with it, and are now aiming to provide a waterpoint near the water’s edge, in time for the festival in July.

So play the game, use their facilities - and buy their beer!

It was a pleasure meeting them.

M

onday Speakers

October started this season with a talk from Hertfordshire Boat Rescue Services by Stuart Foreman.

Stuart outlined the many services this voluntary organisation offers to keep us safe when near the waters of Hertfordshire. One memorable occasion (well apart from their annual participation in the Ware Festival of course) was for the Lee and Stort Boat Company. Now we all know what a safety first pukka firm this is. Sadly their propellers are not so firm! They lost, yes indeedy, they lost their prop in Ware Lock.

Several attempts were made using drag lines and a manganese bronze magnet for locating bronze propellers. As I understand it the early Bronze Age settlers in the North Sea (known as the Dogger Bank People) first used these (then called lodestones) for navigating. Lodestones gave way to the magnetic compass still used today. For more detail of Doggerland q.v. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland.* Anyroad none of the attempts succeeded, but early one Saturday morning a team from HBRS and Stortford Divers recovered the propeller and returned it safely to its rightful owners.

Stuart left with:   

A round of applause A small donation towards HBRS And the projector’s power lead for November's talk!

November saw Mimi Alderman getting off to a very shaky start (be fair Stuart had taken the projector power lead). Topic was the Begone Woman (an alternative spelling for Bygone woman). A fascinating talk of the dark ages post lodestones but before colour photography camera phones (now used for navigating). What an accomplished woman, she played a theatre organ for nigh on seventeen years and she steers a narrow boat. Due to the technical hiccup her talk was a trifle fast but a fascinating insight into the River Lee environs, nevertheless.

Being a post Cenotaph Sunday meeting we had as always a collection for the Royal British Legion Edgware Branch, Air Force Division and a welcome £20 will wing its way to them. Why RBLEBAFD you ask. Well it only seems fair they do provide your BBQ service at Ware Festival each year, hence but a small recompense.

*And if you believe in manganese bronze magnets you can be the first to know the Tooth Fairy has put in a better tender than Santa Claus who has been made redundant for this year’s Hogwatch.

14 October 2015

CANAL & RIVER TRUST LAUNCHES NEW ‘WATERSIDE MOORING’ WEBSITE The Canal & River Trust is today launching a new website for the sale of its long-term moorings.

The new Waterside Mooring website will show all current vacancies on a map or list and provide photos and details of over 300 mooring sites managed by the Trust As well as giving boaters more information about the moorings available, there will now be a fixed-price Buy-It-Now option for many of the Trust’s moorings.

Jenny Whitehall, head of the Canal & River Trust’s Directly Managed Moorings, said: “The new Waterside Mooring website is packed full of information to help boaters find the perfect spot The new website can be found at: www.watersidemooring.com.

If you have any feedback please send it to: Waterside.Mooring-Enquiries@canalrivertrust.org.uk.

The Green Eye of the Yellow God

by J. Milton Hayes There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu, There's a little marble cross below the town; There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew, And the Yellow God forever gazes down.

He was known as ‘Mad Carew’ by the subs at Khatmandu, He was hotter than they felt inclined to tell; But for all his foolish pranks, he was worshipped in the ranks, And the Colonel's daughter smiled on him as well.

He had loved her all along, with a passion of the strong, The fact that she loved him was plain to all.

She was nearly twenty-one and arrangements had begun To celebrate her birthday with a ball.

He wrote to ask what present she would like from Mad Carew; They met next day as he dismissed a squad; And jestingly she told him then that nothing else would do But the green eye of the little Yellow God. On the night before the dance, Mad Carew seemed in a trance, And they chaffed him as they puffed at their cigars: But for once he failed to smile, and he sat alone awhile, Then went out into the night beneath the stars.

He returned before the dawn, with his shirt and tunic torn, And a gash across his temple dripping red; He was patched up right away, and he slept through all the day, And the Colonel's daughter watched beside his bed.

He woke at last and asked if they could send his tunic through; She brought it, and he thanked her with a nod; He bade her search the pocket saying ‘That's from Mad Carew’, And she found the little green eye of the god.

She upbraided poor Carew in the way that women do, Though both her eyes were strangely hot and wet; But she wouldn't take the stone and Mad Carew was left alone With the jewel that he'd chanced his life to get.

When the ball was at its height, on that still and tropic night, She thought of him and hurried to his room; As she crossed the barrack square she could hear the dreamy air Of a waltz tune softly stealing thro' the gloom.

His door was open wide, with silver moonlight shining through; The place was wet and slipp'ry where she trod; An ugly knife lay buried in the heart of Mad Carew, 'Twas the ‘Vengeance of the Little Yellow God’.

There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu, There's a little marble cross below the town; There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew, And the Yellow God forever gazes down.

Lee Valley Marina South Street, Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire, SG12 8AL. Phone: 01920 870 499 e-mail: stanstead@leevalleypark.org.uk You will find us just 500 metres from St Margaret’s main line station

Committee Members Chairman Craig Haslam h: m: 07956 848 025 e: boatyboy96@hotmail.com

Secretary

Treasurer, Membership Secretary

Mike Jones h: 01992 584 310 m: 07976 517 749 e: mike.jones10@ntl.com

Carole Beeton h: 01992 468 435 m: 07905 701 948 e: robandcarole@msn.com

Joint Events Officers Banny Banyard Terry Stembridge h: 01279 771 552 h: 01992 575 702 m: 07860 669 279 m: 07709 205 498 e: banny@tesco.net e: terrystembridge32@hotmail.com

Magazine Editor Monica Hawes h: m: 07943 169 800 e: monicaforboats@hotmail.com

Tony Plunkett h: m:07944 678 228 e: tplunkett@hotmail.co.uk

Ware Festival Committee Members: Mike Newman h: m: 07887 540 398 e: mike.newman2@btinternet.com

Christine & Dave Batley h: m: 07708 580 495 e: canddbatley@gmail.com

The IWA may not agree with opinions expressed in this newsletter, but encourages publication as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may be construed as policy, or an official announcement unless otherwise stated.

IWA accepts no liability for any matter in this newsletter. Registered Charity No212342