10 minute read
Kennet & Avon Canal Trust Page Newbury Reading Crofton Beam Engines
14
Schoolchildren in the amphitheatre awaiting the Queen’s Baton Queen’s Baton riding on Barrian
adjoining amphitheatre, the Baton bearer was carried along the waterway in Barrian (pictured) up to Chapel Arches, disembarking at the new platform to continue its journey around the UK and on to Birmingham. After the success of last year’s inaugural Maidenhead Waterways Fun Day - see https://youtu.be/ghgsB4jq8R0 - we are busy planning this year’s event and will report in the next issue of Cargoes.
Richard Davenport, Chair of the Trustees
Kennet & Avon Canal News
Newbury Branch
By the time you read this we will probably have forgotten the long hot days of summer, including the 3rd July when we staged Newbury Waterways Festival. It was great to hold the event once again after the hiatus of the last couple of years due to Covid. It proved a very successful day, with large crowds on the towpath and in the adjacent Victoria Park. With plenty to celebrate –not only the first festival since 2018, but also the 60th anniversary of the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust, the theme of the event was “Let’s Party”. The coveted Brewers Trophy for the best dressed boat was won by the youth boat Falcon Adam, decorated like a teddy bears’ tea party by Guides, Brownies and the like, and with posters and banners reflecting the party theme, it well deserved to win. We were entertained during the Festival by The Crofton Stokers with their easy blend of music, and the Mis-spent Ukes, who also entertained the traditional boaters’ supper the evening before. The day finished as normal with our duck race, with lots of spectators enjoying watching. Great fun as always. Our trip boat MV Jubilee ran extra trips during the day and
15
sold out every trip. Many thanks to all the stall holders, helpers, boaters, and organisers in making this a Festival to be proud of.
Jubilee continued to be very busy during the summer, with our special pirate trips and summer evening cruises proving to be very popular. The boat finishes the autumn with a run of Halloween trips for children. Join us for a Creepy Cruise on Tuesday 25th, Thursday 27th and Saturday 29th October. These are trips when passengers and crew dress up, have fun and there is even a chance to try our “trick or treat” box! For details of these and all trips, including our Santa trips at Christmas, see our website jubilee@katrust.org.uk.
Sarah Foley
Reading Branch
Chairman’s Report
Hello all I hope you are all having a good summer. As always, we have been watching the wildlife over the last few months. We have seen the Swallows arrive and saw an increase in numbers, all perching on the nearby electric cables. We feared that with the sudden heat wave, we may have lost the young birds but a few days later all appeared to be once again providing the fascinating aerial acrobatic exhibition. We have seen green woodpeckers with their undulating flight and hopping around the ground looking for bugs and ants. Our resident Herons sit cheekily on the bankside in apparent indifference as we pass by but you can see their beady eye follow our journey. Special interest was an Egret perched in the trees near Southcote Moorings and the magic of seeing Gloworms down by duckbilled weir area at Fobney. We had a great day at Reading Water Fest this year, lots of people with smiling faces. Water Fest is a tremendous opportunity to embrace the local talents and organisations and enjoy musicians on three stages. The floating stage gives a great addition to the walk along the cut adding to the atmosphere. The waterside length of Chestnut Walk was fully occupied and had some great things to see and people to talk to. We had Blacksmith boat Emily Brontë demonstrating their craft. Next door was Lancing, one of the first Kennet & Avon trip boats. Paul Fit has done an amazing job to bring her back to GUCC working boat colours. We are
16
hoping Paul will join us at one of our branch meetings in the near future. Boats Annie and Floradora had many looking and asking questions of their crew. We had sculptor Candida Wright demonstrating her skills and allowing folk to try their hand with a mallet and chisel. Towards the end of Chestnut Walk we had Matilda Too not yet in “club” colours but hopefully we can work hard to get her carrying trip passengers soon. And last but not least, the day boat Stanley with a newly fitted electric outboard finishing the line. The Mayor and Deputy Lieutenant of Berkshire enjoyed their cream tea aboard Stanley and agreed that Lancing was the winner of the Burghfield Island Boat Club Trophy for best turned-out boat. Unfortunately, the Huntley Wharf developers decided to close the riverside walk stopping the usual charity stalls and losing moorings that would normally add to the boating atmosphere. This work was a surprise to us and much of Reading Borough Council, it was also against the planning conditions that were set in place when planning approval was given. Other victims of Paul Fitt, Lancingand VIP’s the developers uncaring build work have been the Bel and Dragon who would normally join the Festival and had live music and events that had to be curtailed. We also had a Kennet & Avon Canal Trust exhibition in the Turbine House near Blake’s lock area. The photos and documents were in place for a couple of weeks and we will repeat the exhibition next year assuming the developers deign to reopen the footpath. We had a good day fundraising. We raised £41.18 in donations with children brass rubbing the previous years event plaques, £90.04 with Debbie Johnson offering samples of cake promoting afternoon teas that we hope can be booked on Matilda Too in the future. Debbie also provided a cream tea “break” for our V.I.P.’s which was well received. We raised £84.95 in donations introducing Matilda Too to Reading; unfortunately we could not offer trips but the enthusiasm was palpable and hopefully we can take bookings soon. The day finished with the traditional duck race raising £312.50. Matilda II’sCrew following Essential Safety Thanks to the team of paddle Training boarders from @SUPera who helped collect the ducks. This gave us a Grand Total on the day of. £528.65. Our thanks to Berkshire Lowland Rescue folk who kept a watchful eye and kept us safe.
17
I had been hosting and talking to the Mayor and Deputy Lieutenant of Berkshire when they visited the waterside. We talked about The Trust's aims and the projects being worked on by the Reading Branch. We talked about the loss of income to the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust due to the Huntley Wharf disruptive work. We also spoke about the project to restore the wash house on Aldermaston Wharf, the costs of getting the trip boat up and running, the lobbying of CRT to adopt long life (steel) lock gates and the lobbying of Reading Borough Council to make Reading a more boat friendly place. The Deputy Lieutenant suggested that they might be able to help with these projects. The following day I received an email from the Deputy Lieutenant of Berkshire offering a grant from the Berkshire Community Fund for £5,000.
I think this provides a great example of how events like this are important to raise our profile and encourage people to support our wonderful waterway. We have been working to establish a Reading trip boat and have acquired “Matilda Too” a 32ft Narrowboat and laid out to work comfortably as a trip boat. Aside from the Water Fest appearance we ventured Matilda IIand Peter out to Newbury Water festival as a shakedown cruise. It was pleasing to be introduced to the Mayor as the Skipper of the new Reading Trip boat only to find I also appear in a photo on our boat in the Newbury weekly news…what fun! We have waded through the treacle to get the approvals license and insurance and will now be offering trips from the start of August. Our final hurdle was to bring the 6 skippers first aid UpToDate. This was done with C&A Training of Reading using the Humber Barge at the Bel and Dragon who generously donated the space for our course. It is with much sadness that we heard that John Swift passed away in July after a short illness. He was a great stalwart of the Reading Branch of the K&A canal trust and a much-valued secretary of our branch committee. I will miss his sage advice and guidance. I will also miss the humour including the awful puns. My condolences to Pam and the family. A lovely man. We have begun drawing up a plan for action with the intention of inviting key people in the relevant organisations to experience the 1st mile on Matilda Too and to see what the navigation and the town looks like in its currently untended state. Hopefully this will begin the regeneration and adoption of the opening lengths of our wonderful waterway. The Aldermaston Tea Room is now open for the season although we have recently received notice from Gary and Sam that they will be moving on to new challenges at the end of September…we wish them well. We have received replies from the builders we asked to tender to renovate the Wash house in the Tea Room Gardens. We are currently discussing the details of the work in the hope that the work will begin before the end of the year.
18
The police have been active in the Anti-Social Behaviour deterrence again and have recently seized 6 motor bikes. It has noticeably been quieter over the last couple of weeks. Despite this good work I suspect we haven’t seen the last of the Sustrans Cavalcade. A boat caught the cill at Heals lock in early July with that inevitably sinking feeling. CRT excelled themselves and had the boat afloat and lock open inside 36 hours. Our friends on Tyseley, The Mikron Theatre ventured on to the wild west of the canal system (their words not mine) to continue their floating tour of the waterways. They were met with news that a Maserati had taken out the Theale swing bridge breaking the safety rail along the edge of the bridge. Only hours later a Mercedes had done similar on the Padworth swing Bridge. Amazingly swift work by CRT and their contractors managed to repair the Theale bridge by the following morning and had the Padworth bridge back and opening by mid-day the next day. Tyseley pressed on Tyseley only to be halted near the night’s performance site at the Approaching Rowbarge in Woolhampton by an aged Oak tree falling Southcote Lock across the cut. This stopped the west bound cruise but the show went on regardless. Talking later to Marianne McNamara at their performance at the Cunning Man, Burghfield they will not be beaten and promised to be back next year. You can see their future tour dates on https://mikron.org.uk/tour_dates Our next meeting is on 12th September – details below. Meetings currently being planned: 12th September, October 18th, November 15th, December 20th . Subjects to be confirmed for later in the year include Paul Fitt - Restoring NB Lancing, and a speaker from The Diveco who will talk about the recovery of the sunken boat under gas works bridge and the issues around such recoveries. We are hoping that someone will be able to present on the famous Devizes - Westminster race, the event that helped to keep the navigation open in its more desperate days. Keep well and look after each other. Graham Puddephatt chair.reading@katrust.org.uk
Future Events
Entry donation to Meetings, including K&A members, £2.50 (to help with expenses). Further details can be found on the Website at www.katrust.org.uk Mon 12th September: Fobney pumping Station by Laura from Thames Water (hoping to be opened for viewing at the heritage building event in September. At Bel and the Dragon on the Humber Barge. We are planning to make this available over Zoom.
