WELCOME TO THEeBUTTY

the online Newsletter ofthe Kennet and Avon

Canal Trust

JULY 2015

Editor - Jane Inight - TheButty@katrust.org.uk

With the summer season in full swing, the Kennet & Avon is a busy placewith lots of delightful things to do. I’ve been enjoying working on two of ourfour passenger boats. It’s always a delight to take visitors out for a trip onthe canal and explain what makes it so special.

At Crofton, we’ve had a series of excellent steaming weekend events aswell as some ‘specials’ such as a joint project with the floating cinemacurrently touring the K&A. We’ve not been able to open outside steamingweekends so far this season but I’m pleased to report that Crofton be fullyopen in time for the summer holidays as our new Site Manager takes upher post in July. We’ve also welcomed Kirstie McCullough who has takenon the renowned Engineman’s Rest tea room at Crofton.

Our summer festivals got off to a great start in Reading in June when manyhundreds of visitors enjoyed a great day by the water. The Reading branchteam worked hard to make it a great success and the Jubilee crew took arecord 300 passengers on trips in one day. On 26th June, the NewburyWaterways Festival will take place in Victoria Park. We’ve plenty of boatsand other attractions this year. If you’d like to hear more or get involvedcontact juliedean@btinternet.com.

I was pleased to visit Bath recently and declare open a landscaping projectat the canal entrance that has been completed by our Bath & BristolBranch. An excellent project that has made a great improvement to thisimportant site, it also illustrated that 25 years after the reopening of thecanal, we are still delivering further restoration of our beautiful canal.

And to pick up that point; it’s 25 years since HM The Queen reopened thecanal to through navigation. It’s been a huge success and the faith of theearly pioneers has been fully rewarded. The canal is a truly special placeenjoyed by millions. We’ll be celebrating that success on Friday 7th August,together with our partners at the Canal & River Trust. An event at Caen Hillrunning from 11am to 3pm fill feature a restaging of the opening courtesy ofthe Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, together with a series of displays and

Chairman's Update

activities showcasing the canal’s use today. We’ll be inviting as many of therestoration pioneers as we can, but the event is open to all. Please feel freeto turn up and celebrate 25 years of our wonderful restored canal.

To end on another note of celebration, I was delighted to see that Mike Wyatt,former Reading Branch Chairman was honoured with a BEM in the BirthdayHonours list for his work on restoring the Reading end of the K&A. Alsohonoured with an MBE was member Sally Ash, former member of theReading Branch team and recently Head of Boating at CRT. Heartycongratulations and thanks to both of you K&A pioneers.

Rob Dean

Crofton Steams Ahead

Crofton Steaming dates for the remainder of 2015 are:

July 25 & 26

August 29, 30 & 31

September 26 & 27 End of Season Steam Gala

Crofton will also be participating in the Heritage Open Daysprogramme, opening free of charge on 12 and 13 September. Theengines will not be running on this occasion,

Wiltshire’s Story in 100 Objects: Crofton has lent one of theirlargest spanners to this free exhibition, which will tour venues aroundthe county during the next two years. The exhibition will atChippenham Museum from 15 June to 12 September 2015. For moreinformation see

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/news/articles/exhibition-offers-key-to-wiltshires-past-28-may-2015

Peter Turvey

Chair, Crofton Branch

6:30-10.30pm: Music and dancing, food and drink, canal-related artand displays. Our annual contribution to Devizes Carnival Week.Please put this in your diary, then do come along and have fun –and bring your family and friends! Headline act this year is the folkband, Wessex Contraband, and other performers will be takingpart .

This is our own Devizes Branch event. We will run a promotionaltent for the Trust and a beer tent for fundraising. We will need helpwith these and will also need a technical and work party to erecttents, put up bunting, help with electrics etc. Any offers of help willbe gladly received on 07952 821463 ordevizes.chairman@katrust.org.uk whether you’d like to man ourstands or help with the set-up and dismantling of the event.

Not to bemissedin

Devizes

A New Member?Becky, the Trust's

Assistant Administrator,gave birth to FrederickJames Barker born onthe 20th June 2015 at2.39 am weighing 8lbs

12 ozCongratulations to Mumand Dad and welcome

Frederick

A celebration in Bath was held on Friday, June 5th, where the River Avon meetsthe Widcombe end of the Kennet and Avon Canal, to officially open a small butperfectly restored, historic piece of land. The work had been lovingly carried outby the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust's Bath and Bristol branch volunteer team withthe support of the Canal and River Trust.50 year of rambling plant growth had been removed by the volunteers but nowthey can really enjoy the fruits of their labours as they look down and see thenewly erected signpost guiding the canal users on their way.

Official recognition for the labours ofBath and Bristol Branch

Trust Members Quick to respond to MedicalEmergency

Bradford on Avon members , John Inman and Derrick Hunt stepped in quickly to assistan injured boater, when she suffered serious injuries to three fingers, whilst mooring anarrow boat.Her husband sent a letter of thanks saying "I cannot overstate how grateful I was, andstill am, for their concern and help in dealing with the aftermath of the incident. I wasobviously very stressed at the time and to have someone take away from me the worryabout organising medical attention meant I could spend the time comforting my wife."Congratulations to them both for their quick thinking and calm and caring response.

The new signpost is unveiled

Flower Power at the Newbury Waterways Festival

The Newbury Waterways Festival is on Sunday 26th July and our theme this yearis Flower Power! Would you like to bring your boat? There is still time -contact Julie juliedean@btinternet.com for a booking form. We are delightedthat we will be joined by the Floating Cinema on the return leg of its tour‘Looping the Locks: Brentford to Bristol & back again’. ‘The Kevin O’ReganBand’ will be entertaining us; described as ‘a heady cocktail of folk with a hintof blues, a dash of country, a splash of rock washed down with a large measureof exuberance’! A new contingent of 200 blue ducks have been flown in to joinin our famous duck race to make it even bigger and better than usual. Trip boatJubilee will be busy over the weekend with extra trip on both Saturday andSunday. And the Kennet & Avon Brewery will be serving their delicious coolbeer from the beer tent. All that plus the usual wide variety of stalls andbeautiful boats adds up to a festival not to be missed!

Festival Boaters Party

All Trust members, family and friends are invited to join us at the NewburyWaterways Festival Boaters Party on 25th July in Victoria Park in the form of anAmerican Supper with live entertainment. You are invited to bring a plate offood (savoury, salad or sweet) to share, your own drinks and a chair or picnicblanket. We will supply bread, plates and sauces – and a live band! It’s alwaysa fun night so do come and join us. Tickets are available at £5 available inadvance from kact.newbury@btinternet.com or buy on the night.

A Swashbuckling Good Time!

The trip boat Jubilee at Newbury will be running its ever popular themed Piratetrips for children during the school summer holidays at 2.30pm every Tuesday& Wednesday. These are very popular trips and tickets sell fast so call theNewbury Visitor Information Centre on 01635 30267 to book up in advance.

If you aren’t the pirate type then Jubilee’s normal ‘sailing’ times throughout thesummer are every Saturday & Sunday at 12 noon and 2pm and on Thursdays at2.30pm. You will find us on Newbury Wharf under the crane (RG14 5AS).Trips last approximately 75 minutes and cost £6 adults, £5 seniors, £4 children.Tickets in advance from the Newbury VIC 01635 30267 or from the boat whenthe VIC is closed.

Julie Dean

Newbury NewsA Summer of Fun on its Way

News Hands at the Helm at theDevizes Trust Tea Rooms

Keith and Margaret Green have taken over the Trust Café on thewharf in Devizes, and will run it as a tea room. For the past fouryears they have run the Rose and Crown in Worton, and they arelooking forward to their new venture. They hope to be involved withDevizes Branch of the Trust and will continue to undertake cateringfor events on Kenavon Venture and elsewhere. Do call in for adrink or a meal when you are in Devizes.

Keith and Margaret with their son George in the Tea Room onDevizes Wharf

Have you had your camera out?So far we have only received 1 entry for our photo competition, volunteers at work on theK&A, so why not have a bit of fun and have a go?The Butty urgently needs good quality photos for future editions, particularly showingmembers and volunteers enjoying their use of the canal. Can you help?Any photos to TheButty@katrust.org.uk

THE JOHN GOULD AWARDThis year’s recipient is Mark Stephens who you will know as our

Waterway Manager for the past 5 years until he moved on to greaterthings in the Canal & River Trust at the end of last year.

The award is in recognition of Mark’s excellent 5 years as WaterwayManager for the Kennet & Avon during which he worked tirelessly not

only to keep the waterway open but also to improve it.

He listened carefully to the opinions of users and other supporters ofthe K&A. He took the opportunity to make best use of the voluntary

help available and quickly recognised that he could work in partnershipwith others to improve the K&A.

Mike Wyatt, member of KACT since 1971, and former Chairman of ReadingBranch, has been awarded a well deserved BEM (British Empire Medal) for hiswork restoring the Kennet and Avon Canal.Sadly it seems that at 85 Mikes boating days on his own boat, Moonflower, arecoming to an end, but we do hope he will continue take pleasure in using thecanal and all it has to offer and must extend not only our congratulations, butour thanks too for his invaluable contributions over many years to the canaland the Trust.Mike himself wishes to say "None of my activities with Reading Water Fest or forany of the publicity events I have organised for the Trust could have been donewithout the active participation of many branch members and I am particularlygrateful for the help and support of the then Trust President, Sir Anthony Durant."

Mike and his wife Audrey on Moonflower

BEMforMikeWyatt

Reading Branch took part in the Reading RESCUE (Rivers and EnvironmentalSpaces Clean Up Event) on Saturday 28 March.Overall a very good day with 17 Reading Branch members and friends getting theReading part of the towpath into a better state to encourage recreational use andprovide an attractive cycle route between the town centre and the Reading footballand rugby stadium (even if the football results are not always encouraging!)

David CopleyMore in the next edition of The Butty

ReadingBranch inClean upCampaign

Photo by Max Ward

The next edition of The Butty will be coming through your letterbox at the beginning of October.

Is there something you would like to say or share?

Do you have a story to tell about your life and the canal?

Do you have any ideas for future editions?

I would love to hear from you!

Jane InightEditor

The Butty@katrust.org.uk