75th Anniversary
Robert and Ray Aickman in the bow of Cressy when they joined Tom and Angela Rolt on a trip to Banbury in 1946.
IT BEGAN AT TARDEBIGGE This August marks 75 years since IWA founders Tom Rolt and Robert Aickman first met on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. Waterways looks back on the historic event and how it has been celebrated through the years
Robert Aickman steering a narrowboat in 1950.
O
n Saturday 11th August 1945 at around 2.30pm, a meeting took place on narrowboat Cressy, moored above the top lock of the Tardebigge flight on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. Back then it would have been viewed as little more than an informal social event – two couples greeting each other for the first time – yet it was a meeting that, in due course, was to have life-changing effects on the individuals, as well as far-reaching consequences for Britain’s waterways.
First contact At the meeting were: L.T.C. (Tom) Rolt, who had been living on Cressy at Tardebigge throughout World War II with his wife Angela and had recently published his first book Narrow Boat, and Robert Aickman, a literary agent, with his wife Ray. Robert wrote to Tom after reading his book, saying: “For many years I have been interested in canals, and distressed both by the neglected condition of many of them and by a certain lack of enterprise… with which the remainder are too commonly administered. I think, as you say, there is a real danger of the canals merely being allowed to die; and for no good reason as, properly administered, they could still occupy a perfectly sound place in the national economy.” Robert continued by suggesting that a society should be formed to promote the regeneration of canals. He proposed that it might present itself somewhere between the Light Railway Transport League (which was championing the case for trams) and a supporter group like the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral, and that it should be a disinterested body of “enthusiasts (not fanatics)”. In replying to Robert, Tom wrote: “Six months ago I would have doubted whether such a project would receive an adequate response but now, judging by the number of letters I have received, I am inclined to think otherwise.”
At Tardebigge Consequently, Tom agreed to meet up to discuss the idea, inviting the Aickmans to visit them aboard Cressy at Tardebigge. Robert responded in
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“Frequent letters between Tom and Robert make it obvious that the first meeting passed off exceptionally well” a letter dated 18th July that he and Ray, together with two friends (Howard Coster, a photographer, and his wife), were staying at the Queen’s Hotel in Birmingham over the night of Saturday 11th August and would like to visit on that afternoon. Tom gave precise instructions of how to find their mooring: “New Wharf is at the other end of Tardebigge Tunnel and we lie just below Tardebigge Church, 200 yards off the Bromsgrove and Redditch road.” Autumn 2020 23/07/2020 15:07
