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Your Letters
To Boats and Canals.
Dear Boats and Canals.
I am researching my family tree and have come accross two families that lived and worked on the canals in the north west of England during the 1800 & 1900's .
Daniel Clare born 1819 Preston married Margaret Ford born 1820; they married at Manchester Cathederal 1839 and had the following children ~ Hannah 1841 Ormskirk, Richard 1843 Ormskirk, John 1846 Wigan, Margaret 1849 Wigan, Mary 1850 Wigan, Catherine 1853 Wigan, Daniel 1854 Liverpool, James 1857 Wigan and William 1859 Northwich. I have nothing on these family members apart from sketchy census details.
Margaret Clare went on to marry John Heathcote who was also a canal boat owner in 1870 and they had nine children born all over the North West -David 1871 Runcorn, John 1873-1901 Leigh, Martha 1874 Astley, William 1876 Astley, James 1878 Astley, Daniel 1880 Manchester, Joseph 1884 Leigh and Margaret 1889 Astley. In the 1891 census this family are in Mount Street Manchester and 2 sons are listed as Boatmen, another as Boat Builder - can anyone give details on this?
George is my Great Grandfather who married Frances Mckenna in 1902 Salford. I have no idea on any of the rest of the families Clare or Heathcote. Census details are quite scarce
If anyone can suggest types of records and where they are held on how I can research these families or if you recognise the names, then please get in touch.
Cheers
Jan T
www.tiveyfamilytree.com
Dear Boats and Canals,
FIRST TIMERS
With some trepidation and severe reservations my wife and I accompanied our neighbours on our very first narrow boat holiday recently. Having been "taken in" by the mood at the time we had all too easily agreed to give this type of a holiday a try but as the day for departure drew ever closer the more reluctant we both became about the whole silly idea.
It was going to be so claustrophobic on the boat and I personally would be driven to distraction (or was that "destruction") by the slowness of everything. I like to get up and get going - get something useful done with the day - I'd hardly get a lot done by cruising down some canal in the Midlands at 3mph now would I?
There were 6 of us in the party and we had hired a 70ft - 8 berth craft as we got 2 toilets and showers on board rather than just the 1 on a 6 berth
We picked our boat up at Braunston (Of which I'd never even heard of before) and off we sets on a bright but chilly Sunday morning into the great unknown - - Now let's be honest here - I served 12 years in the Royal Navy and have been half way round the world and back again in my time so I wasn't exactly brimming over with excitement as we chugged slowly up the Grand Union Canal
We hadn't got time to do "The Ring" (??????) so we would settle for a straight-forward "Up & Back" (????) Which was all carefully explained to me by our neighbours who were making their umpteenth visit to a narrow boat holiday and knew the ropes a bit.
I won't go into the full week but suffice to say that when we got back to Braunston the following Sunday I stood on the small bridge over-looking the Marina after putting all our bags and cases in the car and I couldn't have been any more miserable than I was.
Why oh why hadn't we booked a fortnight instead of just the 1 week? Maybe we should have booked 3 weeks or possibly we could have booked the whole month - But why did we only have that 1 terribly short week?
I am more than happy to put my hand up and shout at the top of my voice that I have never ever been more "wronger" in my whole life about something. We had the most wonderful week's holiday that we have ever had in all our married lives (34 years)
The company we went with helped of course as we all get on so well with each other but the rest of the week belongs to you "Boat People" out there.
I can't even remember when so many people bid us a "Good Morning / Afternoon / Evening" just for the sake of being friendly and acknowledging that we were a part of the human race after all.
We had stepped back 100 years - back to a time when people mattered and time didn't - When it was a pleasure to be nice for no other reason than the pleasure it gave
My wife and I are still "buzzing" from our introduction to the narrow boat - the canals - locks - long black wet tunnels but most of all for meeting so many nice people out there
If we came across you on our travels - "Thank You" for making us welcome - even though we were only holiday makers you accepted us
Our next holiday? You don't even need to ask - - all we have to decide is where????
Alan & Sue Walker
(Basildon - Essex)
The Horse Boating Society is making its next journey in 2008 on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, May 1 - 16.
On May 4th we are running a small event on DiggleFields then the horseboat Maria will be legged through Standedge Tunnel.
On May 5th we will be available to chat to the public at Tunnel End Visitor Centre. We are much in need of crew for the whole journey. Also we need as many volunteers to run the event on May 4th or chat to the public on 5th. Do offer yourself if available, or consider if you can think of someone who might like to try horseboating. We need to recruit more members anyhow.
Look at our website for updates and amendments.
See www.horseboating.org.uk. Please fill in a Crew Form, downloadable from our website, if you can come as crew. This can be returnedby email or post. You can email me to offer yourself as an event volunteer on May 4 or 5. I hope very much that some of you can join in the journey, to enjoy yourselves, and help the Horseboating Society. Any queries about accomodation and travel arrangements, please get in touch with me.
Basically, Maria has little accomodation to offer so it means roughing it on the boat or B&B or tent etc. Local crew return home at night. Car shuffles are made most days. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards, Sue
Sue Day, chairperson of The Horseboating Society
Dear Boats and Canals,
I would be pleased to receive your comments on the
letter sent to the Horseboating Society from BW Yorks.
We wish to leg Standedge Tunnel in May 2008. However
the HBS most certainly will not fund the legging out
of its small income, which is about £1,000 per annum,
made up of subscriptions and donations.
We have objected earlier to paying on the grounds that :-
1. It sets a precedent for being charged to leg a
tunnel.
2. It sets a precedent for charging to preserve and
promote living heritage.
3. We cannot use our Heritage Lottery Fund grant for
this charge because it is not included in our
submission.
4. Others go for free.
5. We do not want the safety boat in the tunnel with
us, but accept the shadow van.
Having now received the BW Yorks letter, how shall I
reply and proceed?
One point is that 4 men seems unnecessary. Cannot one
of the 3 lock the gates?
All thoughts to me please. Are BW being reasonable or
unreasonable?
We could try for sponsorship, but then who would do
this for us?
I've offered to try to get TV for BW but I cannot
guarantee that at the moment as I've not tried yet.
Regards,
Sue
Sue Day, chairperson of The Horseboating Society
TRANSHIPMENT WAREHOUSE, PEAK FOREST CANAL, WHALEY BRIDGE.
Dear Boats and Canals,
Following the acceptance of an Expression of Interest submission to the East Midlands Development Agency, British Waterways and it's partners in the Whaley Bridge Community, at the end of August, were asked to provide a more detailed plan for the refurbishment of this important historic 19th. Century Grade 2* listed building known to many and a mystery to most..
The money available is from THE WATERWAYS REGENERATION PROJECT budget is to front the economic development of an area and grants up to £500k would be considered..
Plans drawn up by The Whaley Water Weekend Committee were taken on board by BW in the fleshed-out bid submitted at the end of September 2007. These plans showed that the potential for extensive community use of the site and would include a large transparent glass floored community meeting room, tourist information centre, small cinema and cafe AND importantly the strongly felt idea that the external area would be the ideal site for the farmers market that has been desperately seeking a home in Whaley Bridge for some time..
Further ideas are being sought from the community and enthusiastic encouragement has been forthcoming from both the local member of Parliament, Tom Levitt and local councils who are 100% behind the bids.
In a years time it is hoped that the basin will be full of visitors, their boats and other tourists.
Barrie Walker. Chairman
Saul Festival
Dear Boats and Canals Members and Guests.
Festival Refunds
Following the cancellation of the 2007 Festival due to freak flooding
at the end of June, we have refunded just under £25,000 to
ticket-holders, traders and suppliers. This has been a huge
administrative task for our volunteers and has gone on for weeks.
Almost 900 letters were sent out to those who had prepaid varying
amounts. Cheques have now been sent to all but about 100 people who
have not replied to the first letter. We have honoured every
money-back request so far received, but around £8,000 remains
unclaimed.
Closing Date
For auditing reasons we now need to establish a cut-off date for
those of you who have not yet informed us of your intentions.
Therefore, if anyone has not replied to their refund offer letter by
15th November 2007, we will need to assume that the money we hold is
intended as a generous donation to defray the festival costs. If you
have any questions regarding refunds then please call the Refund
Administration Office on 01453 766 751
As previously forecast, despite the £9,000 donated already by
sympathetic festival goers, the cancellation has cost the festival
trading company about £30,000.
We see the donations as a splendid and big-hearted gesture by
disappointed supporters and a massive vote of confidence for next
years festival.
Traders, Sponsors & Advertisers
Three corporate sponsors, Arup, Attwoolls and Tingdene Marinas, have
honoured their sponsorship fee payments and many traders have made
generous donations.
Festival Programme
The 96-page festival programme had already been printed when the
last-minute decision was taken to cancel the event.
Everyone who had paid in advance has been sent a Festival Programme
as a memento of what might have been& as well as an indication of
what to expect in the future!
Such distribution has allowed us to honour the obligation to our
advertisers to achieve the highest possible circulation and
readership, and hence potential for response. In furtherance of that
aim we have placed every advertisement onto the Festival website
www.junctionevents.org.uk
To Boats and Canals
What a pleasant surprise it was when i stumbled across your website while i
was searching around the net for information about boating holidays in the
UK. The website is very welcoming and colourful, i just love the pictures of
the boats and countryside, but when i clicked on the forum area i was
wonderfully surprised by all the photographs and information, as i was only
expecting chat. Your members have a great knowledge of the boats and
waterways, much that has been invaluable to me as i seek to get details for
a life long ambition of a boating UK holiday. I am a regular visitor to the
forum and i would just like to finish off by thanking everyone who
contributes to the website, keep up the good work.
Chuck Anderson
Herndon
Virginia
USA
A letter to B & C from Sue Day.
Dear All,
Thank you so much to those who wrote or emailed their
best wishes to Queenie and myself after Queenie became
ill.It made the world a less lonely place!
I collected Queenie from the hospital today. She has
been transferred for 2 weeks to the stables of my
specialist equine vets where she can receive careful
monitoring.
She has coped with the surgery well and the hospital
staff were pleased with her progress. She looks bright
and cheeerful and is very keen to get to food again.
Such a relief after her lack of interest a week ago.
Professor Proudman asked about her boating work again.
He thinks she could be gradually reintroduced to
exercise after about 4 months. The next 4 months will
be awful for her. 8 weeks in a stable, then another 8
weeks in a stable or tiny yard. Just little walks out
of the stable being led to prevent her rushing around,
bucking, rearing, kicking etc in excitement.
There are a few initial problems. She is lame due to
oedema in her legs as she is unaccustomed to lack of
exercise. She has a small discharge from her abdominal
wound. Otherwise all is ok so far.
Thank you again for commiserations sent.
Regards,
Sue
Sue Day,chairperson of The Horseboating Society
Dear boats and Canals.
'Locks & Quays' is currently in pre-production and due to begin filming this
summer. In this series we will be making the journey coast to coast from
Hull to Liverpool.
The 10 episode series due to be shown on ITV1 in the Granada & Yorkshire regions, will take viewers along the Aire and Calder
Navigation and join the Leeds - Liverpool Canal to it's end in Liverpool.
The series will celebrate the canal communities, the holiday makers and the
people who make their living afloat along this stunning stretch of the
British Waterways. We will embrace the local heritage and history along the
route and the spectacular countryside and signs of urban renewal as we
travel through the villages, towns and cities built around the canals.
We are keen to hear from the people who live, work or holiday on these
canals and those who enjoy the canals from the towpath, so we want to appeal
to anyone who might have an unusual canal story or an interesting insight
into an aspect of local history along this route to please feel free to
contact Phil on 0161 776 4377 or email phil@centini.co.uk
Phil Smethurst
Centini uk.
Hi Johnny
I would just like to say a big thank you for this forum.The help I have
received have been excellent no matter what I have asked I have had a
positive reply and help in sorting some of our problems out being over
65yrs that means a lot to me.
All the best
Maureen (board member)
From: "FABRICANT, Michael"
To:
Dear Sir.
I am writing in the hope that B/W (British Waterways) may do something to relieve the tension between boaters and fishermen.
It seems the situation never seems to improve and perhaps B/W may have a more serious outlook into the problem. It seems to me that most of the time confrontations are started by the fishermen, a lot of the time the fishermen are swearing and being abusive. I just don't think this sort of behaviour is justified, especially when boaters have their children on board their narrowboat or cruiser etc.
Is it possible we could see fishermen having to display some sort of number tag/plate, the same as the boaters have to? Maybe that would cut down on the amount of abusive behaviour. I'm not against B/W at all, but I don't think that people, especially those who have paid all that money for a boat including licence fees and mooring fees etc, should have to put up with this sort of behaviour.
Jimmy.
(Proud Board member)
ENJOYING A RETIRED BOATING LIFE
Hello Boats and Canals
We (My husband and dogs) have been boating for 11 years in total, 9 years on the River Severn with a cruiser and narrowboat, and two years at Barton Turns Marina, Burton on Trent with a narrowboat named Madasa-Soles (i`ll leave you to work it out for yourselves). The River Severn was always a challenge never knowing when it would flood. Especially if we were out and away from the boat when there was heavy rain, when it did flood things were tricky to say the least. The banks seemed high so views of the scenery were few and far between. The upside of it was that the locks were manned so no hard work for us. The Birmingham and Worcester canal at diglis basin was about three hours away from our moorings at Upton, so we decided to move moorings to Barton Turns as this is far easier to explore the many different canals e.g Llangollen Canal and the rings e.g. Four counties ring, Warwick ring etc.
The wildlife is excellent too on these canals and we enjoy every moment of it. Our boat is for pleasure we don't live on board but we get away as often as possible as we are both retired.
Maureen Davies
(Board member Madasa)
To Boats and Canals.
Dear Sir
Following on from the Comment you left when you signed our guestbook, quote `A wonderful site, more on canals please`, we have decided to bring forward the planned canal section.
I have started with a small article on the Thurlwood Steel Lock, and shortly we will be adding a gallery on the Falkirk Wheel.
I would like with your permission to ask all members, especially those that don’t have their own web site if they would like to submit an article to feature on our site with or without pictures. I will of course need contact details for anyone that does, but I guarantee that I will not publish these, nor pass them on without the express consent of the member or members. It doesn't have to be on canals but at the moment canal topics will be very helpful, as long as it fits in with the general content of the site, and is of course is for family viewing, and no blatant advertising.
Any members with their own web-site that would like a reciprocal (two-way) link with www.fgo.org.uk please contact me via our web set or by a Personal Message through B&C Forum. If you feel that you need to visit our site to make sure that it is a fit site to link with yours, please feel free to check us out, and maybe just sign our guestbook.
Many Thanks
Best Wishes
Maurice (Lancastrian, Boats and Canals Member)
Maurice, you have the permission from Boats and Canals to ask any member for an article for your new website, in fact we encourage anyone to submit an article relating in particular to the canal world, good luck with the site.
Boats and Canals www.boatsandcanals.com