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Kent & East Sussex Branch Interim IWAKES Chairman’s Piece We held our first meeting of the season at our usual venue in Strood Yacht Club on the evening of 19th September. The excellent talk we enjoyed was an exploration of the past and present of the preserved steam driven tanker SS Shieldhall [ www.ss-shieldhall.co.uk ]. This was given by Graham Mackenzie who is Chief Engineer, devoting a lot of his time in a voluntary capacity in order to keep the vessel operational. A visit or better still trip on board is highly recommended by Mike Marsh, one of our members who organised this talk. Thank you Graham and Mike. Unfortunately the audience was not huge. Risking the charge of repeating the same message… as always we do need more members to show an interest in order to keep these evenings viable. We would be willing to arrange meetings elsewhere in the branch area if there is support for this. I would especially like to hear from members living in East Sussex and West Kent if they have ideas that might inspire. Peter Wilkinson
Obituary Reverend Douglas Caffyn PhD We are sorry to hear of the death of Rev Caffyn, an Eastbourne resident who made an immense contribution of support and advice on waterway access issues. From his meticulous research into the history of rights to use navigable rivers Douglas Caffyn concluded that there had long been a common law right to take a boat along the navigable rivers of England and Wales but that this right was misinterpreted in an influential nineteenth century legal text. His research gained him Academic recognition. In 2004, he submitted a thesis on “The Right of Navigation on Non-tidal Rivers and the Common Law”, providing a wealth of information and shaping thinking on the subject of access to water. It gained a Master of Law degree from the University of Kent. A more detailed tribute is published by British Canoeing at…. https://www.britishcanoeing.org.uk/news/2023/tributes-paid-to-reverenddouglas-caffyn-phd
