The Inland Waterways Association
Ouse News - Autumn 2014 The Great Ouse Branch Newsletter covering the Great Ouse and tributaries
Contents:
Stratford River Festival Photo: Carole Alderton
Campaigning for the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and development of the Inland Waterways.
Branch Committee
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Chairman’s Corner
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Taff James
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Letter to the Editor
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Wherry in the Fens
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Morning Mist
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River Cam Cons.
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River Festival
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Ship Inn
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Branch News
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Book Review
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Christmas Cards
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The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Inland Waterways Association or of the Great Ouse Branch. They are, however, published as being of interest to our members and readers.
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Branch Committee Chairman: Keith Alderton Holly Cottage, 57 Globe Street Methwold Thetford, IP26 4PQ Tel 01366 727236 e-mail:keithalderton@sky.com Secretary: John Hodgson 9 Beaufort Way, Brickhill Bedford, MK41 7XQ Tel 01234 344884 e-mail: jhodgson@rivouse.fsnet.co.uk Treasurer: Enid Hodgson 9 Beaufort Way, Brickhill Bedford, MK41 7XQ Tel 01234 344884 e-mail: jhodgson@rivouse.fsnet.co.uk Ouse News Editor: Carole Alderton Holly Cottage, 57 Globe Street Methwold Thetford, IP26 4PQ Tel 01366 727236 e-mail: carolealderton@sky.com Sales Officer: David Anderson 21 Cambridge Street St Neots, PE19 1JL Tel 01480 477227 e-mail:david.anderson@uwclub.net Membership Officer: Peter Webb 35 Norfolk Road Ely, CB6 3EJ Tel 01353 658581 e-mail: peter.c.webb@tesco.net
Members: Stephen Foote 14 High Street, Chrishall Royston, SG8 8RP Tel 01763 838936 e-mail: g4foh@tambourine.org.uk Derek Bradley 24 Witchford Road Ely, CB6 3DP Tel 01353 661601 e-mail: bradleyd@waitrose.com Gail Mead 12 Coltsfoot Close Ixworth, IP31 2NJ Tel 01359 232603 e-mail: gailjmead@btinternet.com
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Chairman’s Corner It certainly turned out to be a great summer for boating, despite the poor start and cool August. We made best use of the warm weather and, together with two other boats belonging to branch members, attended the Stratford-upon-Avon River Festival in early July. This gave us a good excuse to have an extended seven week cruise exploring the waterways in that part of the country, eventually turning for home at Sharpness on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal (see page 16). More recently, we stayed on a friend’s narrowboat in Limehouse Basin to see the Tall Ships Regatta on the Thames. Our boat club had chartered Hydrogen, a Thames sailing barge, for a day’s cruise down river from Tower Pier past the many moored sailing ships at Greenwich, Woolwich and beyond. Unfortunately, with all the movement of sailing vessels, Clipper river buses and the like, we were only able to turn off the engine and cruise under sail for a short while on the lower reaches. However, it was a great experience, the highlight being having Tower Bridge raised to allow us passage. We rounded the weekend off with an evening cruise on a tall ship from Woolwich Arsenal to see the firework display at Greenwich. All-in-all a fantastic weekend seeing London’s river at its best. In contrast, the situation on London’s canal network is dire, with more and more live-aboard narrow and wide-beam boats clogging up the waterways. It has been said that during the time that BW and latterly CRT have been deciding what to do about the situation, the number of such boats has increased from around 2000 to 3000 and the problem is getting worse day by day! One GU based boat yard claims to be selling 50 second hand boats a month, most of which head for London. The journey through London, whilst not pretty, used to be enjoyable, but now you have to manoeuvre past an endless line of double and triple moored boats, some blocking lock landing stages and waterpoints.
Ouse News Page 5 Where will it all end? Recent reports in the waterways press regarding the Canal & River Trust’s plans to tackle the situation do not give genuine boaters any hope that matters will stop getting worse, let alone improve in the foreseeable future. After all, the Canal & River Trust is a navigation authority, not a housing association charged with solving the problem of a lack of affordable housing in London. I am sure that if thousands of residential caravans were to invade properties owned by the National Trust, they would be dealt with very quickly indeed! I have just read a report in the Sunday Times that states “A crackdown on travellers and gypsies to make it easier for local authorities to evict them and stop them settling on illegal sites is to be unveiled by the government this week. Any traveller who permanently settles at a site will have to apply for planning permission like other members of the public to stay there, even if they are living in a caravan”. I would suggest that we should be lobbying for the canal system to be included in any impending legislation. The lesson for us in our patch is clear – the Environment Agency must get a grip on the situation now, before it is too late! We do not have an unmanageable situation at present, but just take a look at London and see what can happen if you do not make a stand and enforce the rules. With growing pressure on Cambridge, our rivers could easily go the same way. On a more positive, note we kick-off our winter meetings on Thursday October 23rd with a talk by well-known local historian Mike Petty on the history of the rivers between Cambridge and Ely. Mike’s talks have always proved to be popular, so much so that we struggled to find seats for everybody last year. Our meeting on the 27th November should be of great interest to boat owners as we have a presentation by River Canal Rescue Ltd. Keith Alderton All are welcome – I hope to see you there.
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Boats moored 3 abreast in London
A bandoned boat at lock (bollards have been painted yellow by CRT to indicate landing stage)
Taff James Many of you may remember Taff James who served on the branch committee for many years, often assisting David Anderson to man our stand at local events. Unfortunately, Taff died on the 12th August after a long fight with bowel cancer. I represented the branch at his funeral on the 28th August. Taff was undoubtedly one of life’s characters, a larger than life figure who brought a smile and a laugh to many a dull committee meeting. We thank him for his contribution and offer our condoKeith Alderton lences to his wife Pat.
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Letter to the Editor
Dear Madam Editor, Please forgive me if this is a bit of a rant – but someone needs to speak out, I think. We recently returned from a delightful holiday on the canal system. We learned to manage its quirks; the lock gates that wouldn’t open, the paddles that leaked, the shallow bits, the endless lines of moored boats, the harpies that leaned out of the said boats and shrieked ‘slow down’ when we were barely moving and so on. However – there was one especially sour aspect of the trip. Towpath cyclists - Some are charming and very friendly. But unfortunately there are far too many who have absolutely no consideration for other towpath users – boaters, anglers, families with small children and the elderly enjoying a peaceful walk, to name just a few. They come tearing down the towpath on their mountain-bikes with total disregard for anyone else. We have been sworn at, spat on and threatened with violence by these nutters. They have frightened our ladies and scared our dogs – they make no sound, and the next thing you know, they are right on top of you. When filling our tanks with water from a CRT tap, a group of these lycra-clad lunatics, despite being asked to stop and lift their bikes, rode over our hose and completely ruined it. From then on, we had to place camping chairs over our hose whenever we re-filled. This has got to stop. These mad people pay nothing towards the upkeep of the canals. We boaters, through our licence fees, contribute in great measure to the maintenance of the infrastructure - therefore I suggest that we should come first. Selfish, perhaps – but true. A friend of mine has just returned from a holiday visit to the Kennet and Avon Canal. He tells me the sections of the towpath on the K&A are denoted ‘designated cycle-ways’. By whom? Do these maniacs pay anything for their ‘designated cycle-way’? I think not. I do hope that CRT are aware of these difficulties. If they aren’t, they should The First Angry Voice be – we need to bring it to their attention.
(name and address supplied)
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A Wherry in the Fens Reading about the Ship Inn at Brandon Creek in a previous issue, I was reminded that this is where I once fell in – more about that later! In 1973 the IWA held the National Waterways Festival in Ely. James Forsyth, Chairman and later President of the Norfolk Wherry Trust had the idea of taking the wherry Albion around the coast to Ely for the rally. As far as I am aware, this is the only time that Albion has been to sea. Other wherries have been to sea, but there are not many instances. James also had an idea for building a canal linking the Fenland Waterways to the Norfolk Broads. This was a good idea, but is still not likely to be funded in the near future. I arrived at Ely and joined Ewan Anderson our skipper. His son Stuart and I formed the rest of the crew, with me acting as cook. The Shellfen came alongside and collected our rubbish. This was an old tanker barge that many of you will have heard of, working for Appleyard Lincoln at the time. We had hoped to be towed by Shellfen, but instead got a tow from the Royal Navy. In those days, the Navy had some narrowboats, which for recruitment purposes had been made to look like warships. Maybe, they still have these vessels. On board were two navy men and a marine. Stuart later went on to join the Royal Marines. As we got underway, one of the naval vessels cut across our bows in order to change sides for towing. In doing so, they broke our quant, which is rather like a large punt pole. Stuart thought that this manoeuvre was ‘typical Navy’. Ewan told me to whip the quant together, which I did to the best of my ability. When we got to the Ship Inn, Ewan told us to jump. He was very keen on this himself, having been a paratrooper in the army. We never went right up to something before being told to jump. I was rather restricted by my wet weather clothes and fell in, luckily just missing a submerged post.
Ouse News Page 9 Ewan treated me to a brandy when we were in the pub. We then proceeded to Denver and tied up at the Jenyns Arms for the night. The next day the tow was taken over by a tug from King’s Lynn Docks and when we arrived in King’s Lynn, I went home by train. If I recall correctly, a tug from Great Yarmouth towed them on the seagoing journey each way. I was not involved in the sea journey this time, but have sailed in a schooner from King’s Lynn to Ipswich, from Wells-nextthe Sea to Yarmouth and from Lowestoft to Dover. I have also sailed in a barge from Ipswich to London and in a Clyde Puffer from London to Yarmouth. I had heard that they had tried to sail the Albion from King’s Lynn to Ely, but had trouble with the pylons. Robin Adams
(Authorised to examine all private boats and in addition, residential boats provided they are fitted with a gas bubble tester) Additional contact no: Ely Boat Chandlers - 01353 663095
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King’s Lynn is now Boater Friendly Dave, Jan and Morning Mist from Bedford Boat Club would like to take this opportunity to tell you about our pleasant adventure whilst on holiday in July, 2013. I will not bore you with all the details from the start of our holiday leaving Bedford. This year our aim was to achieve reaching Denver then, crossing the Wash to Boston and visiting Lincoln, go through the Glory Hole. We would like to pick up the story on our journey home from Boston. After being held back by the weather for 48 hours at Boston following the bad storms over France, we sought local information along with internet weather forecasting and decided to book a passage through Boston Lock at 14.04. On arriving at the lock, the lock-keeper informed us that the South Westerly wind was holding the tide back and there would be a 40 minute delay. We stood chatting for about half hour, talking about our adventure on the Witham and finally the tide was right for us to set off at 14.45 After all the research and advice we were still apprehensive as to the crossing we were about to make. We were committed now though and had every faith that, no matter what, Morning Mist would bring us home. The forecast was 10 to 14 mph winds, visibility good. We continued up the channel from Boston to the mouth of the River Witham heading into the wind and everything felt good. On leaving the channel we headed out towards the navigation buoys; steadily passing Foxtrot through to Charlie at a speed of about 10 knots. At this point wind was coming off the shore on our starboard side causing waves of 10 to 12 inches high, rocking us sideways. We decided to head out a bit further and tack a zig zag course towards Sunk Buoy at the marker buoy for the entrance of the Lynn channel. The effect of this gave us a much more comfortable cruise and about 50 mins later we sighted the Sunk Buoy. We then headed in towards the mouth of the channel and decided upon reaching no. 5 we would anchor up and wait for the tide to turn. The water was now calm, with just a gentle ripple giving us a pleasant gentle rock whilst waiting for the tide - the time was 17.30. Low tide expected at 19.52.
Ouse News Page 12 Whilst we were whiling the hours away, what a surreal feeling! The sky was a sight to behold. We saw thunder clouds in the distance and saw it raining whilst we were dry and placed in a sunny spot. We captured a rainbow shot as we looked over towards Hunstanton and then caught the sun’s rays through the clouds. It was marvellous and all we could hear was the gentle waves; no other sounds. The tide turned as predicted, and out in the bay we could clearly see the fishing boats majestically trawling their nets and also see that they were heading towards us as the sun was setting. Being a firm believer in using local knowledge and experience Dave said “let’s wait a while and follow the fishing boats in to King’s Lynn as they will have a better knowledge of following the channel than we ever can”. After about an hour, we sat watching the trawlers entering the channel our way. Imagine our shock when the Mary Amelia fishing boat turned around (only 200 yards away from us) and went back out again. By this time the sun was setting at about 21.00 hours. We knew then, that if we wanted to enter Lynn Harbour, we would have to do it on our own following the flashing navigation buoys. This is an experience Dave always wanted to have, but never really felt brave enough. By this time it was pretty dark and we could clearly see the channel buoys flashing away in the distance. I was armed with a pair of binoculars, torch and chart and continually fed information to Dave, identifying the buoys as we approached them. By this time we were entering Lynn harbour at 22.15 approx and the harbour lights were upon us. In the distance, there was what appeared to be a series of blue lights making us believe maybe they were to do with marking the Harbour Master headquarters. By this time I was getting very apprehensive about trying to secure Morning Mist to the GOBA buoys in the harbour, but having every faith in Dave’s boat handling skills and the boat, I did not believe this to be too much of a problem. As we approached the blue lights, imagine our delight to see before us a “BRAND NEW, SHINING, LONG AWAITED FOR, FLOATING PONTOON”!!!!! And begging to be christened! We pulled alongside and tied off securely, with a small crowd gathering at the harbour wall above.
Ouse News Page 13 We both thought it would be nice to quickly go ashore and have a celebratory drink, but found the entrance gate to the pontoon securely locked. After taking a few pictures and inspecting the facilities we felt it was time to retire back onto Morning Mist and have some food and open a bottle of port to mark our journey and achievement. We then stargazed as the sky was so clear for a couple of hours before retiring to bed. I awoke the next morning at 7.30 am because I expected that we would have a visitor. As predicted, at 8.00 am a nice man called Alan, who was the Planning Officer, informed us that the pontoon was not officially open yet. Dave explained our experience of the night before and he was very sympathetic. We then explained that we would be leaving for Denver when the tide permitted. Now for a bit of general information. Facilities provided are: 1. Electricity on a card meter 2. Water 3. Tidal information for cruisers and boats passing through. The pontoon is about 30 metres long and probably too small for their planned operational use as, at the moment, the intention appears to be to allow mooring there for up to 5 days. According to the Planning Officer the intention is to moor boats both sides of the pontoon and, from the information given to us, the Harbour Master will not allow rafting up. All in all, although it is a very welcoming facility for boaters, I feel it should be at least twice the size in order to facilitate all the visitors that are likely to travel from Denver up to King’s Lynn on a 24 to 48 hour adventure. Mooring on the pontoon will be by advanced booking only through the website www.sailthewash.com Congratulations to King’s Lynn Council for finally hearing our cries for the opportunity for us to visit your fine town. In view of our observations, I urge GOBA to continue to maintain the floating moorings at the top end of the harbour. We hope you have enjoyed this account - a truly thrilling and memorable journey. Well done King’s Lynn. Dave Bouttell - Skipper, Jan Bouttell Crew, Last - but never least - our “MORNING MIST”
Ouse News Page 14 I’d like to introduce myself - Jed Ramsay. I’m the new River Manager here at the Cam Conservancy. I started at the Conservancy in May in our glamorous (temporary!) portakabin office. I’ve come to the Conservancy following 13 years at the Environment Agency, where I worked as an engineer in flood risk management and then as a manager in Waterways on the River Thames. Here are a few things we have happening at the Conservancy at the moment. Office move - As I mentioned we’ve now moved up from Baits Bite lock to our depot at Clayhithe – so we are all located at the same place. It makes working as a team that bit easier. We’re planning to rent out Baits Bite lock office once we’ve done a small refurb to the place. We are currently awaiting planning permission so we can build a new office at the depot in place of the old workshop on the riverfront. River works (pic below) - We’ve had a busy summer with a range of work including bank protection, new fishing platforms, weed cutting, willow trimming and towpath works. We’ve also had the usual range of incidents to deal, with such as floating gas bottles, boats coming adrift, horses escaping onto the towpath and the huge range of events that makes the river so popular.
Ouse News Page 15 Improving our online facilities - We’ve got a new mobile friendly website and also made the jump to facebook and twitter (for those of you who like that sort of thing!). We also have an events calendar on google which you can sync to any device and is much more user friendly. As part of this, we now also accept license applications and payment online. If you can suggest more improvements to our online services please do drop me a line. We also have an email newsletter which you can sign up to via our website. Swans on the Cam - We’ve had national media interest again in the swans on the Cam. I’ve done interviews for Newsround and Boston News to name a couple... the latest storm seems to be around reports of a particularly aggressive, but as yet unidentified, swan. We’ve had a handful of incidents recorded this year involving swans; but not more than you’d expect given the busy nature of the Cam. Please do continue to report incidents to us so we can build a picture. Diary Dates - Upcoming events and works on the Cam: 4th October – Cambridge Small Boats Head 9th October – Charity Duck Race 18th October – Cambridge Autumn Head 9th November – Cambridge Canoe Club (Essex Winter Series) 15th November – Cambridge Winter Head
Jed Ramsay Phone: 01223 863785 River.manager@camconservators.org.uk
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S tratford R iver F estival In the absence of the IWA ‘National’ this year, Carole & I, along with Stephen & Meg Foote and Jonathan & Gail Mead decided to head off to the Stratford River Festival. It was, for us, a first chance to explore the Stratford Canal and the River Avon. Needless to say, both navigations are very attractive and should be on every boater’s wish-list to visit. This year’s festival was a special one as it celebrated the 50th anniversary of the reopening of the Stratfordupon-Avon Canal by the Queen Mother and the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Avon Navigation to Stratford. The event was attended by a record 130 boats from all over the country. The number attending gave the organisers a few headaches and it took 4 days to get everybody safely moored in their (or somebody else’s) allotted place. Over the years they have found it best to moor the boats in rafts, tied up stern-on at an angle facing upstream on the river opposite the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. The first boat to moor is a 60 footer with its bow tied to a buoy secured to a large concrete block on the river bed. The raft is then constructed by mooring 55ft., 50ft. and then 45ft. boats etc. on each side of the anchor boat. The plan looks good on paper, but relies on a boat of the right length appearing in the correct sequence from one of three different directions. The boats then have to reverse into position against a very strong sideways river current. It all sounds very chaotic, but after plying our volunteer pilot with a few beers we eventually got into position, albeit with the anchor buoy submerged under our bow! The event is primarily a ‘river’ rather than a ‘boating’ festival with most of the activities land based in the adjoining park. There were dozens of craft stalls, food outlets and live entertainment throughout the weekend.
Ouse News Page 17 The boating contingent played their part with boats dressed overall and an illuminated boat parade. A superb firework display next to the moorings rounded off the event. The organisers were well pleased to see the many thousands of visitors - a figure of 55,000 being bandied about. The downside of the mooring arrangements was that we were trapped in position for over seven days for a two-day event. However, this gave us the opportunity to thoroughly explore Stratford and do all of the touristy things such as seeing a performance at the theatre, riding on an open-topped bus and visiting the various Shakespeare related buildings in and around town. All-in-all a most enjoyable experience! Our trip continued with a run down the tidal River Severn to Gloucester Docks. They really have made a good job of preserving the old warehouses around the dock, supplementing them with sympathetically designed modern buildings. There are ample pontoon moorings for visitors in the dock, providing easy access to the Waterways Museum, local shops and restaurants. They certainly appear to welcome visiting boaters to the City. The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal was constructed to provide ships with a safe means of bypassing the shoals along the Severn estuary (i.e. the bit where the Severn Bore occurs). It is a fascinating canal with more than a dozen swing bridges that appear to open by magic as you approach. All are traffic light controlled and operated by CRT bridge keepers who are either actually present, or watching you through cameras at a remote location. As you approach Sharpness the canal runs alongside the estuary providing open views over river and sandbanks. Finally at the old sea lock you can see right down the estuary as far as the two Severn suspension bridges.Our return journey took us back up the River Seven to Worcester and up the Worcester and Birmingham Canal via the notorious Tardebigge flight of 30 locks to re-join the Grand Union and onwards to our base at Blisworth. The complete trip encompassed some 250 locks over 250 miles, hard work for the ladies working the locks and for the men drinking beer on the back decks, but great fun all round. I can’t wait to be off again next summer! Keith Alderton
Ouse News Page 18 Good News from the Ship Inn - Brandon Creek The 29th August saw the end of our second year at The Ship. We have been delighted with the positive feedback and many returning customers, both off the rivers and the A10. We must be doing something right, as so many are returning regularly.We are offering a bottle of house wine with a booking of 4 or more this autumn – see our advert for details. Our hard work and success is now being recognised in the trade circles. We have received notice that we have been selected to take part in the national Free From Awards, having proven the standards required to ensure allergens are clearly identified on our menus and, both kitchen and serving, staff are fully trained in catering for those with allergens. With new changing “A la Carte” and Bar Menus to choose from there are lots of new and old favourites to try. CAMRA has just advised us they have been monitoring our Real Ale selections and have included The Ship in their infamous Good Beer Guide 2015 – one of only 4500 pubs selected from over 15000 in the UK. It’s been a good summer for life on the water and we look forward to a mellow autumn with plenty of activity down The Little Ouse, culminating in a convivial visit to The Ship for Real Ale, Real Music and Real Food. Mark & Keith Thomas
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Branch News Winter Meetings
are at 8 pm on Thursday evenings at the Cole’s Road Community Centre, Milton (North Cambridge) CB24 6BL.
Members & Visitors welcome. T HURSDAY 23 RD O CTOBER
2014
An illustrated talk by Mike Petty, C a mbr i d ge s h i r e R e s e a r c h e r, Lecturer & Historian on ‘The History of the Rivers Cam and Great Ouse between Cambridge and Ely’.
T HURSDAY 27 TH N OVEMBER
2015
A n i l l us t r at e d t a l k b y W W T We l n e y We t l a n d C e nt r e o n ‘Welney Through The Seasons’.
T HURSDAY 26
TH
M ARCH
John & Dawn Bridgen, Milton Ernest, Bedford Vaughan Callaghan & family, Eynesbury, St Neots
2014
An illustrated talk by the RiverCanal Rescue.
T HURSDAY 26 TH F EBRUARY
We welcome the following new members to the branch. We hope you will introduce yourselves to us when coming to an event or meeting:
2015
Our March meeting will be our AGM and update from the river managers of the Environment Agency.
Martin Goold, Bury St Edmunds Robert Legg & family, Bedford Edward & Linda McClagish, Milton Ernest, Bedford Simon Acres, Swineshead, Bedford Graham & Marion Smith, Bourn, Cambridge
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Ouse News Advertising • Do you want to contact boating enthusiasts?
• Circulation 350 within 30 miles of Cambridge • Adverts cost £30 (+ VAT) per half page for a year • Three editions a year • Contact The Editor (carolealderton @sky.com)
Why not come along to our next meeting on Thursday, 23rd October, 2014. We shall be having an illustrated talk by Mike Petty, Cambridgeshire Researcher, Lecturer & Historian on ‘The History of the Rivers Cam & Great Ouse between Cambridge and Ely’. A14 West A10 to Ely A10 to Cambridge
Tesco
To Milton
A14 East Tennis Courts Entrance Community Centre
Details of more meetings are on Page 19 and the map above should help you to find the exact location in Milton! (If you have a problem finding us please phone Stephen Foote on 07774 613557)
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Book Review
by Stephen Foote
‘Strangers’ by Geoffrey Lewis Geoffrey Lewis is a narrowboater based on the Grand Union canal in Northamptonshire. He is also a prolific fiction writer, particularly crime thrillers – and with his boating background and extensive knowledge of the system, many of his stories, not surprisingly, strongly feature boats and waterways. ‘Strangers’ is one of a series of four thrillers Geoffrey has penned which are centred around the crime-solving activities of Detective Inspector David Russell of the Northamptonshire Constabulary and his trusty side-kick, Detective-Sergeant Doug Rimmer. Described by another reviewer as ‘Northamptonshire’s answer to Inspector Morse’, the stories take the reader to some very familiar localities which give the tales, whilst fictional, a certain extra sense of reality. ‘Strangers’ is a good read; a bit slow to begin with perhaps but Geoffrey builds his story carefully. Once it really gets going, the pace increases rapidly and the book becomes one of the ‘can’t put down’ kind. It would be wrong to spoil the plot by giving anything away; suffice to say that there is an ingenious twist right at the end which took me completely by surprise – I never saw it coming. The author is a well-known attender and exhibitor at festivals and boat rallies in the East Midlands and if detective stories appeal, you could certainly do a lot worse than buy some of his work, either directly or from one of the several stockists in the Northampton area. Published by SGM Publishing, Wolverton, Milton Keynes MK19 7JR in 2004 and reprinted in 2009 - at £7.99 : ISBN No. 975-0-9545624-1-0
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Does anyone else have any amusing holiday snaps? Please send them in! Duckingham Palace!!
Foote Note/Bottom Line
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IWA Christmas Cards You can, once again, purchase your IWA Christmas cards direct from the branch at discounted prices! These will be available for sale at branch meetings in October and November. They will also be available at Ely Boat Chandlers. You will not only make a saving on the advertised price, but also avoid paying the normal ÂŁ2.50 or ÂŁ4.50 postage and packing charge from head office. Please support your branch!
The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No 612245. Registered as a charity No 212342. Registered Office: Island House, Moor Rd, Chesham, HP5 1WA. Phone No 01494 783453.