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Lyneal Trust pageant rehearsal.
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There’ll be more than one thousand
boats parading down the River Thames this Sunday 3rd June: Fireboats, sail
boats, motor boats, historic boats, manpowered boats, kayaks, working boats,
passenger boats, barges and narrowboats are all preparing for Her Majesty The
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant. With three boats applying for every place it’s
good to see a selection of community canal boats are going to be part of the
event.
The National Community Boats Association (NCBA) supports and represents
community boating organisations on the inland waterways. If you live near a
canal there may even be a project near you using the waterways for socially inclusive
activities. They work both with individuals and community based groups
providing access to the waterways for disabled, disadvantaged or excluded
people in our society. Projects may focus on education, rehabilitation (health
or offending) and building, connecting or strengthening communities.
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| Shropshire Lad |
The Lyneal Trust are sending two
boats on a 220 mile journey to London to join the flotilla: The Shropshire Lass
and The Shropshire Lad. The boats’ crews will include army servicemen and women
wounded in action. This charity provides holidays for people with disabilities
and is located near Ellesmere on the Llangollen canal.
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| Wheldale |
Wheldale, from The Yorkshire
Waterways Museum has also been invited to join Her Majesty’s Pageant in the
National Historic Ships section. Although Wheldale
has been a Goole based tug all of her working life, she was built in 1959 by EC
Jones Boat Builders at Brentford , which is only a few miles from the Pageant
mustering point. The crew are excited to be taking Wheldale on a return journey
‘home’ for the first time in 53 years.
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Wheldale: Pageant Crew: Museum volunteers Ernie Sherburn and Steve
Gardham,
Museum Engineer Chris Sherburn & Museum Manager Rachel Walker |
Although Tarporley at 75 years old, is
also on the register of National Historic Ships she will be included in the
narrowboat and barge section of the river pageant. She is owned by the charity
Camden Canals and Narrowboat Association (CCNA) and crewed by volunteers.
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| Tarporley |
John Sheridan, Chair of CCNA, said:
“it is a great honour and a privilege for our boat Tarporley to have been
accepted as a participant in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant. On this very
special occasion, we will be carrying CCNA Trustees and Directors and other
volunteers – Tarporley will be decked out with red white and blue bunting and
flags, before travelling to the mustering point on the Thames, on the day
preceding the Pageant.”
Tarporley
takes a wide variety of groups on local trips on the Regent’s Canal, and can
provide residential accommodation for longer trips. CCNA particularly welcomes
bookings from officially established community groups and organisations to
allow people to enjoy cruising on a historic narrowboat who might otherwise not
have such an opportunity.
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| The Pirate Prince |
The Pirate Prince is
also based on the Regents Canal at The Pirate Castle in Camden.
The
centre was founded 40 years ago to provide water based activities, but staff
and volunteers now provide a range of training and community activities on
water and ashore. They welcome people of all ages and walks of life.
Red Watch,
The Canal Boat Project provides accessible hire boats
for disabled groups and community groups, for either day trips or longer
holiday excursions.
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| Swingbridge 2 |
Swingbridge 2 is
the smallest of the narrowboats, at 32 feet long. She is a purpose built
work-boat allowing access to the banks for volunteers to undertake clearance
and conservation work. She is owned and managed by a
skills and educational charity, The Surrey Care Trust
Having so many representatives in the pageant is a wonderful opportunity
to showcase the work that community boating projects do nationwide. Many people
in our local communities are unable to access the waterways because of a lack
of finances. The need to physically regenerate the inland waterways is a
popular and ongoing current focus. However, our society is currently losing the
opportunity for social regeneration; while communities are living so close to
canals and navigations that they cannot use.
I am proud to welcome the NCBA as my newest client and look forward to
setting up their blog soon.
If you’d like to find out more about the NCBA you can visit http://www.national-cba.co.uk/ I've also set up a shiny new Twitter account @CommunityBoats so you can keep in touch with
what the NCBA are up to.
Disclosure: I was paid to write this post as my first assignment in my work to raise awareness of the NCBA. But I have really enjoyed finding out all of this information and I hope you did too! :-)
If you're going to her Majesty's Pageant give the community boats a wave!
will
be signing copies of his book 
at this year’s Crick
Boat Show. The new book sees him travelling the north of England with his wife
Monica and their two dogs. Narrow Dog to Carcassonne was the bestselling travel
book of 2006, and this latest will be his third book.
and Narrowboat Dreams about his own
travels and the history of the canals. I have however read the original boating
travelogue: Tom Rolt’s 
. This is a lovely lyrical log about Tom and
Angela’s travels in 1939 through an idyllic rural England. 
by Eily Gayford. This is a fascinating account
of the author’s experience training women to work narrowboats during the Second
World War. I like the bit where they sit in a cabin laughing at the seemingly
impossible thought that boats might one day have “a bathroom with hot and cold
taps, fitted carpets, a Hoover, (and) a telephone!” 
by Annie Murray. This is a sequel to The Narrowboat Girl, but I was
told the cut does not actually feature that much in the first book, so I went
straight for the sequel. Water Gypsies begins in 1942 and describes a series of
tragedies that befall the heroine, who is tormented by a miserable past!
is a modern tale of a family
aboard, trying to make a new start after losing their IT company and large house
when Rover went bust. They move their children and dog onto a dilapidated
narrowboat called Happy Go Lucky and teach themselves about narrowboat life and
boat refurbishment as they go along.The sequel, 
describes their return to the water on another run down boat. There's an 
by Damian and Siobhan Horner. This husband and wife team
have written a memoir about leaving their careers and lives ashore, to travel
the French canals with their two young children. 
