May Friends of President is a support group working for the Black Country Living Museum, Tipton Road, Dudley, DY1 4SQ

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1 195 May 2014 Friends of President is a support group working for the Black Country Living Museum, Tipton Road, Dudley, DY1 4SQ (Registered Charity No: )

2 Committee 2013/4 President - David Powell david.powel@ntlworld.com tel: Reddings Close, Saffron Walden, CB11 4AZ Chairman - Nick Haynes nickhaynes195@hotmail.co.uk tel: Tredington Close, Redditch, B98 7UR Treasurer - Simon Nuttall simon@stationhouse.me tel: Station House, Meadow Lane, Little Somerford, Chippenham, SN15 5JJ Secretary - position vacant Chief Engineer - David Stott dw.stott@ntlworld.com tel: Longfields Road, Hartshill, Stoke on Trent, ST4 6QN Membership/Crewing Secretary - Malcolm Dunlop tel: Solvay Road, Northwich, CW8 4DR malcolm.dunlop@dsl.pipex.com Editor - Neil Ratcliffe neilratcliffe@hotmail.co.uk tel: Briar Cottage, Old Warwick Road, Lapworth, Solihull, B94 6JU Work Party Organiser - Richard Prince tel: c.pike252@btinternet.com Archivist - Richard Thomas thrifthouse@ntlworld.com tel: Admirals Walk, Hoddesdon, EN11 8AG Sales Stand - position vacant Committee - Chris Walker walker385a@gmail.com tel: a Fulwood Road, Sheffield, S10 3GA Steve Kirk tel: Jim Garratt jimgarratt@hotmail.co.uk tel: Springfield Crescent, Kibworth, Leicester, LE8 0LJ David Goode djgoode1980@gmail.com tel: Castle Close, Earl Shilton, Leicester, LE9 7ES All items for inclusion in the newsletter to be sent to the editor, contact details above. Help raise funds for Friends of President By searching the internet using Current total : 51.00p from 5,551 searches By shopping online via Current total : p from 26 registered supporters Website :

3 Editorial Welcome to the latest and slightly delayed edition. The reason will be explained later, but better late than never as the saying goes. My request last month for articles either fell on deaf ears or people aren t reading the newsletter. So please, if you have said you will write something please send it to me as next month is looking like a very light issue. Could someone who was involved in the last work party also send a report, I m sure others would like to know what is happening. I mentioned in a previous newsletter that the boats were being put forward for the National Historic Ships Flagship of the Year award. Following a lack of entries last year when the award wasn t given, there were a lot of entries this year, and we weren t the winners or runners up. The winner was the 61ft Humber Keel Daybreak, launched in 1934, motorised in the 1940s, and restored to sail in It has been based on the Thames for the last 38 years. So good luck to them on their travels as the flagship this year. Runner up was the herring drifter Reaper, owned by the Scottish Fisheries Museum. Janet Ramsay and Tony Tibbins are still appearing in all the ads for the Crick Boat Show. They are both down as crewing at this year s show, and I m sure they would both give you their autographs if requested, they might ask for a donation though. Trip Report (Camper to Wolverley) The plan was to have another of my two day breaks in the new (to me) campervan. Canals are not usually too far away from my destinations, and this was no exception. The site at Wolverley is about 50 yards from Wolverley lock on the Staffs & Worcs Canal. I had been warned that TV reception wasn t good so I was going to spend some time sorting out this newsletter. After being shown my pitch I started thinking I wish I had brought my computer table with me, as this is where I had left the mains lead for the laptop. So with only a couple of hours battery time it didn t get done. The evenings were spent watching part of the box set of The Shield, a US police series, and Wednesday was spent walking the canal. Only saw about half a dozen moving boats during the day, but there were other interesting boats tied up. Alphons - built as a butty for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company and converted into a motor in the early 1970s.

A more modern boat, Rome, owned by Graham Booth, the author of the Narrowboat Builders Book, now in its third edition.

4 Shorelark - in the colours of the Cowburn & Cowpar colours but it doesn t seem to feature in any fleet list for that company that I have seen. There was also another with the colour scheme of T & S Elements, Lapal, but again not in the fleet list. A more modern boat, Rome, owned by Graham Booth, the author of the Narrowboat Builders Book, now in its third edition. This started as a series of articles in Waterways World with the heading of Rome wasn t built in a day. I walked as far as Whittington and went to the Whittington Inn to have a pint and a sandwich, but with the sandwich costing 5.20 I only had the pint. It did say that the sandwich was served with leaves and chips, but I still didn t have it. I also thought of walking into Kidderminster and having a ride on the Severn Valley Railway, but last week was the last week before the weekday service began. It does give me another reason for going back to Wolverley. Trip Report (Canal du Midi - part 2) Next morning Mathieu our First Mate and Guide took Pauline and I into Beziers where we had a nice morning exploring the old part of the City and the lovely Gardens of the Poets. We took a taxi back to the boat and then lunch was served on deck as always as we continued our journey westwards and over the dramatic and beautiful Orb aqueduct. Sadly many thousands of the spectacular plane trees many more than one hundred years old that line the banks of the Midi are soon to die as a consequence of a disease that is untreatable, however plans are in hand to replace them with a type of hardy American Plane tree. We moored that afternoon close by the Malpas tunnel and visited (by vehicle) the Oppidum de Enserune which is a site of many early settlements dating back to pre-etruscan days. There was lots to see in the museum which was perched high on top of a hill and we had a great view looking down to the Etang de Montady which is a drained lagoon and now farmed. It was very

5 hot and on our return to the boat several folk took a siesta, but instead Mrs G. and I took a couple of bikes and rode into the nearby canalside village of Colombiers about a couple of kms away for a look around, a couple of beers and an ice cream. After yet more Masterchef food and a splendid evening on deck Pauline I and three others took a walk to and through the tunnel and then once on the other side clambered up some steps that had been roughly cut into the hillside which took us back over the top of the tunnel. We had between us two little torches but we returned safely to Athos by now quite late on to find that everyone else had gone to bed!

6 We awoke next morning to another super sunrise and after breakfast began a morning cruise to the charming little village of Capestang. At some stage earlier Andrew had organised with Julian our Captain for me to take a turn at the helm. It took a bit of getting used to! The wheel came up to about the top of my chest and it was seriously hard going working ourselves around many of the very tight bends, not to mention meeting and passing some other large barges, but with Julian standing beside me ready to assist and talking me through things my couple of hours in charge seemed to go pretty well. Pauline and I investigated Capestang after lunch whilst those who were painting did so in the delightful village square. There were no late night walks today merely a lovely late evening on deck listening to the song of the cicadas. Friday was to be our last full day on board and once we were fed and watered we set off in a two bus convoy for about a forty five minute and stunningly beautiful drive to the hilltop village of Minerve which overlooks a massive gorge. Minerve had been a most historic city in ancient times and Mathieu gave us a fascinating talk on it s bloody history and the sad demise of the Cathars that lived there in the thirteenth century. Minerve is a jewel and after walking the village three of us found a bar run by a Spaniard from Extramadura who also told us much about the place. After lunch on board we had a gentle afternoon cruise to our final destination Argelliers the home base of Athos. I received another invitation to take the wheel which I gladly did. After about an hour and on a particularly winding part of the canal we suddenly encountered two Paddle Boarders coming round a bend quite quickly in our direction but on our wrong side between starboard and the canal bank. I don t know who was the more surprised me or them, however one minute they were there and the next they performed a dramatic capsize in unison disappearing underwater, a bit like the synchronised swimmers do! Later on after this little episode and on another very tight bend a large plastic Le Boat hireboat which I had seen a little earlier across the fields coming in our direction and so was preparing for a pass attempted to cross our bows on the apex of a bend. For a brief moment it looked for all the world as though the folks on the hireboat were at best going to lose their damage deposit and at worst!!! As with the Paddlers we passed to starboard, but only just. The hundred and twenty horses in Athos were put to good use. Andrew later said that the boat had been in the command of possibly a madwoman. Shortly after this excitement we navigated through the last bridge on our journey once again on a tight bend, Julian talking me through the exact line to take, it certainly was ultra tight with only inches to spare either side. He then took the wheel and moored Athos as the folk on deck very kindly gave the stand in steerer an appreciative hand (possibly nervous tension!). It was the end of a superb cruise but not the day. That evening we sat down to a tremendous feast for our last supper together after which a few of us took a nice walk exploring the marina at Argelliers by night. Next morning having breakfasted well we said our goodbyes and were taken to either Beziers or Narbonne depending on individual travel arrangements. Pauline and I went to Narbonne and spent half a day looking around the central part of the city and the Cathedral and in particular the recently reformed area where the Canal de la Robine (which runs off the Canal du Midi) runs through the city. It was very interesting. And worthwhile visit. Then after lunch there we walked to the railway station and caught a train to Carcassonne where we picked up a hire car and drove about fifty kms to the north west to the town of Mazamet to stay a few days with friends who live there. The Canal du Midi is most certainly not one to be missed! P.S. You may care to visit Tony Greenwood

7 Annual General Meeting You should all have received the official notification of the AGM from Nick, being held at the BCLM on May 17 th, the day before the boats set off for Crick. Following the AGM members are invited to tour the Museum. It is a special evening opening, details can be found here:- and we would like to make it a members evening, there is also a 5 fish & chip supper, contact Nick for details. Fundraising Total raised using easysearch and easyfundraising now tops p from easyfundraising from 26 supporters, and the remaining 51 from 5,551 searches. It would be very nice to increase the number of supporters raising funds, so please consider it if you can. Media mentions Towpath Talk - May, has a photo of President and Kildare on the front cover in an article about the Crick Boat Show. Crick Boating Times - issue 1, has an article about the historic boats that are attending the show. There are three photos and a brief history of both boats. Museum News For those that might like to learn the art of painting canal roses and castles, the museum is holding a one day course on the 10th May. It is being run by Julie Tonkin for a maximum of 12 people. If you are interested contact the museum, the cost is 50, and your decorated piece of canal ware can be taken home at the end of the day. Diary Dates (for May) 3rd - 5th, tug boat event at the Black Country Living Museum. 3rd - 5th, Norbury Canal Festival, will have working boats in attendance. 13th, Ellesmere Port Boat Museum. A talk by Roger Wickson titled Working Boats and Boat People Remembered. 7.45pm. 14th, IWA Warwicks branch. A talk by Alison Smedley - Boat Spotting Guide. 7.30pm at the Sports Connexion Leisure Centre in Ryton-on-Dunsmore. 24th - 26th, Crick Boat Show. Our boats and the sales stand will be in attendance. The stand number is Q2, the same location as the last time we had a space outside. Still spaces available if you want to help on the stand. 30 tth - Jun 1st, Etruria Canal Festival will have an historic boat parade.

May Friends of President is a support group working for the Black Country Living Museum, Tipton Road, Dudley, DY1 4SQ

May Friends of President is a support group working for the Black Country Living Museum, Tipton Road, Dudley, DY1 4SQ 195 May 2017 Friends of President is a support group working for the Black Country Living Museum, Tipton Road, Dudley, DY1 4SQ (Registered Charity No: 504481) Committee 2017/8 President - David Powell